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

He mentioned although neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Bhutan offered easier access to travelers from India, obtaining visas for visiting most Western and European countries remained a challenge.

This dissatisfaction with the limited global access of Indian passports found confirmation in recent global passport ranking, ranking India in the 85th spot out of 199 countries, five spots lower compared to the previous year.

The Indian government have not issued a statement regarding these findings yet.

Nations like Rwanda, Ghana and Azerbaijan with much smaller economies compared to India – a nation that is the world's fifth biggest economy – hold better positions in the ranking at the 78th, 74th and 72nd spots, in that order.

In fact, India's rank in the past decade has hovered around the eighties, falling to ninetieth place in 2021. Such standings are dismal when measured against Asian nations like Singapore, Japan and South Korea, all maintaining top positions.

What Passport Strength Measures

The power of a passport reflects a nation's soft power and international standing. This leads to better mobility for passport holders, boosting business and educational prospects. A weak passport means additional documentation, increased visa expenses, reduced travel benefits and extended processing periods for travel.

But despite the decline in the rank, the count of nations providing visa-free travel for Indian citizens has grown over the last ten years.

For example, eight years ago – the year the current administration's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power – 52 countries offered visa-free travel for Indian passport holders with the passport ranked 76th in the ranking.

A year later, it tumbled to eighty-fifth place, then improved to eightieth over the past two years, dropping again to the 85th position this year. At the same time, visa-free destinations for Indians grew from 52 in 2015 to 60 in 2023 and sixty-two this year.

Increasing Worldwide Travel Competition

The count of visa-free destinations in 2025 (fifty-seven) exceeds what it was eight years ago (fifty-two), but the country's position for both these years remains at eighty-fifth. What explains this situation?

Experts say that a major reason involves growing competition in international travel – meaning nations are forming more travel partnerships to benefit their citizens and economic growth. According to a 2025 report, the worldwide mean count of countries people can visit 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 fifty to eighty-two in the past decade. Consequently, its position on the index has enhanced from ninety-fourth to sixtieth during the same time period.

In comparison, India – which was ranked at seventy-seventh place during summer – dropped to the 85th position in October after losing access of two nations.

Additional Factors Impacting Passport Power

An ex-diplomat from India says multiple elements influencing the strength of a country's passport, like economic and political conditions plus its openness to accepting travelers from other countries.

For example, the American passport has fallen of the top 10 and now occupies twelfth place – its lowest ever – because of its increasingly insular stance in world politics.

The diplomat recalls that during the seventies, Indians enjoyed visa-free travel to many Western and European countries, though this shifted after the Sikh separatist movement during the eighties. Subsequent political upheavals have continued to damage at India's image as a stable democracy.

"Many countries are growing increasingly wary of immigrants," the diplomat added. "The country possesses a high number of citizens emigrating overseas or overstaying their visas and that interferes with the national image."

Factors such as the security level of a national passport and its immigration procedures also play a role to obtaining visa-free access to foreign nations.

Security and Technological Improvements

India's passport faces ongoing security risks. Last year, law enforcement detained 203 people for suspected passport and visa irregularities. The country also has complex immigration processes with lengthy timelines of visa processing.

The former ambassador says that technological advances, such as the newly introduced electronic passport or e-passport, can improve security and ease the immigration process. This electronic document contains a microchip that stores biometric information, increasing difficulty to forge or tamper with the passport.

However, more diplomatic outreach and travel agreements remain key to boosting the global mobility of Indians and, by extension, India's passport ranking.