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In recent months, a video by an Indian travel influencer complaining about India's weak passport gained massive traction on social media.

He mentioned that while nearby nations such as Bhutan and Sri Lanka were more welcoming of travelers from India, obtaining visas for visiting many nations in Europe and the West remained a challenge.

Such concerns with India's poor passport strength was reflected in the latest Henley Passport Index, ranking the country at position eighty-five out of 199 countries, a decline of five positions than last year.

Officials in India have not issued a statement regarding these findings so far.

Nations including Rwanda, Ghana and Azerbaijan with much smaller economies than India – a nation that is the fifth-largest economy globally – hold better positions in the ranking at the 78th, 74th and 72nd spots, respectively.

In fact, the country's position over the last ten years has remained in the 80s, even dipping to ninetieth place two years ago. These rankings are dismal compared to other Asian countries like Singapore, Japan and South Korea, all maintaining leading ranks.

What Passport Strength Measures

Passport strength indicates a nation's soft power and international standing. This leads to better mobility for its citizens, improving commercial and learning opportunities. Limited passport power results in more paperwork, higher visa costs, fewer travel privileges and longer waiting times for travel.

However, even with the decline in the rank, the count of nations providing visa-free travel to Indians has grown in the past decade or so.

As an instance, eight years ago – the year Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power – 52 countries offered visa-free access to Indians with the passport at seventy-sixth position in the ranking.

A year later, it fell to eighty-fifth place, then rose to 80th in 2023 and 2024, declining once more to the eighty-fifth spot this year. Meanwhile, visa-free destinations to Indian citizens grew from fifty-two eight years ago to sixty last year and sixty-two this year.

The Competitive Global Mobility Landscape

The count of visa-free destinations this year (fifty-seven) is higher than the number in 2015 (fifty-two), yet the country's position for both these years remains at eighty-fifth. So, why is that?

Experts say that a major reason is the increasingly competitive landscape in global mobility – indicating that countries are forming additional travel agreements for their populations' advantage and economic growth. As per a 2025 report, the worldwide mean count of countries travellers are able to access visa-free has almost doubled from fifty-eight nineteen years ago to 109 in 2025.

As an illustration, The Chinese passport has increased the number of visa-free countries available to its citizens from 50 to 82 in the past decade. As a result, its rank on the index has enhanced from 94th to 60th during the same time period.

Meanwhile, India – previously positioned at seventy-seventh place in July – fell to the 85th position in October after losing access of two nations.

Additional Factors Affecting Passport Strength

A former Indian ambassador notes there are other factors influencing a nation's passport power, like its economic and political stability as well as its openness to welcoming citizens from other countries.

For instance, the US passport has fallen of the top 10 currently holding twelfth place – its lowest ever – because of its more inward-looking approach in world politics.

The former ambassador mentioned that during the seventies, Indians enjoyed visa-free travel to many Western and European countries, but that changed following Khalistan movement in the 1980s. Later political disturbances have further chipped away the country's reputation as a stable, democratic country.

"Many countries are growing increasingly wary of immigrants," he stated. "The country possesses a high number of citizens emigrating to other countries or remaining beyond visa limits and that interferes with the national image."

Elements like the security level a country's passport is and its immigration procedures also play a role in gaining visa-free access to foreign nations.

Security and Technological Improvements

The Indian passport remains vulnerable to security threats. Last year, law enforcement arrested over two hundred individuals for alleged passport and visa irregularities. The country also has complex immigration processes with lengthy timelines for visa approvals.

The former ambassador says that technological advances, like India's recently-launched digital passport or e-passport, may enhance safety and ease the immigration process. The e-passport contains a small chip holding biometric data, making it harder to forge or tamper with the passport.

But, more diplomatic outreach and travel agreements continue essential to boosting international travel freedom of Indians and, by extension, the Indian passport's global position.