Indian passport fee hike - Rightsofemployees.com https://www.rightsofemployees.com Know Your Rights Thu, 24 Jul 2025 03:45:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 https://www.rightsofemployees.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-emp1-32x32.png Indian passport fee hike - Rightsofemployees.com https://www.rightsofemployees.com 32 32 Indian Passport Ranking Improves: Explore 59 Countries Without a Visa in 2025 https://www.rightsofemployees.com/indian-passport-ranking-improves-explore-59-countries-without-a-visa-in-2025/ Thu, 24 Jul 2025 03:45:27 +0000 https://www.rightsofemployees.com/?p=46378 Henley Passport Index: The dominance of the Indian passport has increased further. Now you can travel to 59 countries without a visa. India is at 77th place in the global ranking of passports of countries around the world. The Henley Passport Index report was released on Tuesday. This ranking is prepared on the basis of […]

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]]> Henley Passport Index: The dominance of the Indian passport has increased further. Now you can travel to 59 countries without a visa. India is at 77th place in the global ranking of passports of countries around the world.

The Henley Passport Index report was released on Tuesday. This ranking is prepared on the basis of the number of countries where one can travel without a visa on the passport. India was at 80th place in the index last year.

Now it has moved up three places compared to that. Now India is at 77th place along with three other countries – Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal. These three countries including India allow visa-free travel to 59 countries. That is, Indians can go to 59 countries without a visa.

According to an NDTV report, the 2025 ranking is the second consecutive improvement for the Indian passport. Talking about the total number of countries that can be visited without a visa, India had 62 last year. However, this ranking also depends on the performance of other countries’ passports that year. Pakistan’s ranking has also improved. India’s neighboring country Pakistan is at 96th position in this index. It was at 101st position last year. Indians can travel visa-free to 19 countries in Africa, 18 countries in Asia, 10 countries in North America, 10 countries in the Oceania region and one country in South America.

Singapore is at the top of the Henley Passport Index this year again. It offers visa-free travel to 194 countries. In 2024, Singapore was at the top along with Japan, Germany, Italy, Spain and France. But this time it is alone. Japan and Korea are jointly in second place. Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain are in third place. Citizens of these countries can travel to 189 countries without a visa.

The Henley Passport Index is a global ranking that measures the strength of passports. It shows how many countries a person can enter without a visa or visa-on-arrival. It is based on data from Henley & Partners and the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

59 countries where Indians can travel visa-free:

1. Angola (Africa)

2. Barbados (North America)

3. Bhutan (Asia)

4. Bolivia (South America)

5. British Virgin Islands (North America)

6. Burundi (Africa)

7. Cambodia (Asia)

8. Cape Verde Islands (Africa)

9. Comoro Islands (Africa)

10. Cook Islands (Oceania)

11. Djibouti (Africa)

12. Dominica (North America)

13. Ethiopia (Africa)

14. Fiji (Oceania)

15. Grenada (North America)

16. Guinea-Bissau (Africa)

17. Haiti (North America)

18. Indonesia (Asia)

19. Iran (Asia)

20. Jamaica (North America)

21. Jordan (Asia)

22. Kazakhstan (Asia)

23. Kenya (Africa)

24. Kiribati (Oceania)

25. Laos (Asia)

26. Macau (Asia)

27. Madagascar (Africa)

28. Malaysia (Asia)

29. Maldives (Asia)

30. Marshall Islands (Oceania)

31. Mauritius (Asia)

32. Micronesia (Oceania)

33. Mongolia (Asia)

34. Montserrat (North America)

35. Mozambique (Africa)

36. Myanmar (Asia)

37. Namibia (Africa)

38. Nepal (Asia)

39. Niue (Oceania)

40. Palau Islands (Oceania)

41. Philippines (Asia)

42. Qatar (Asia)

43. Rwanda (Africa)

44. Samoa (Oceania)

45. Senegal (Africa)

46. Seychelles (Africa)

47. Sierra Leone (Africa)

48. Somalia (Africa)

49. Sri Lanka (Asia)

50. Saint Kitts and Nevis (North America)

51. Saint Lucia (North America)

52. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (North America)

53. Tanzania (Africa)

54. Thailand (Asia)

55. Timor-Leste (Asia)

56. Trinidad and Tobago (Africa)

57. Tuvalu (Oceania)

58. Vanuatu (Oceania)

59. Zimbabwe (Africa)

 

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]]> Are Indian passport and visa service fees going to increase? what did the embassy say? https://www.rightsofemployees.com/are-indian-passport-and-visa-service-fees-going-to-increase-what-did-the-embassy-say/ Fri, 28 Feb 2025 08:01:08 +0000 https://www.rightsofemployees.com/?p=40337 Indian passport fee hike news: Recently some media reports claimed that the fees for Indian passport and visa services abroad are going to increase drastically, causing concern among the expatriate Indian community. However, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Indian Embassy in Bahrain have dismissed these reports as ‘speculation’. According to media […]

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]]> Indian passport fee hike news: Recently some media reports claimed that the fees for Indian passport and visa services abroad are going to increase drastically, causing concern among the expatriate Indian community.

However, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Indian Embassy in Bahrain have dismissed these reports as ‘speculation’.

According to media reports, the cost of consular, passport, and visa (CPV) services may increase by 15 to 20 times under a new proposed request for proposals (RFP) from the government. Under this proposal, applicants will have to pay for a combined package, which includes digitisation of documents, fingerprint and facial biometric capture, and four additional services – photocopying, photography, form filling, and courier services. This combined fee will be mandatory even if the applicant does not require all these services, increasing the cost from $5-7 (approximately ₹415-580) to $90-100 (approximately ₹7,470-8,300).

Following this report, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Migrant Legal Cell urged the government not to implement the proposal. “Many migrants earn modest salaries and will find it difficult to afford the revised fees, which have increased by up to five times in some countries,” they said in their memorandum.

Embassy said – Do not trust

However, the Indian Embassy in Bahrain rejected these claims and said in a statement that these reports are speculations and should not be believed. The embassy said, “There has been no increase in the fees of various consular services provided in Bahrain as claimed. The embassy advises all concerned to avoid such unconfirmed and speculative reports, which may cause inconvenience to the Indian community in Bahrain and affect the effective delivery of these services.”

Thus, MEA and the Indian Embassy in Bahrain have clarified that reports of any increase in fees for passport and visa services are purely speculative and no such increase has been announced at present.

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