Visas now mandatory for undocumented non-Muslim migrants who entered India before 2025
The Centre has revised India’s immigration exemptions, requiring certain refugees and long-term foreign residents to obtain visas even where they were earlier allowed to enter or remain without valid travel documents. At the same time, it has clarified and relaxed documentation rules for people travelling between India, Nepal and Bhutan.
Under the amended Immigration and Foreigners Exemption Order, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Jains and Parsis from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2024 after facing or fearing religious persecution can still enter without a valid passport or visa. But those who arrived without documents, or whose documents later expired, must now obtain an appropriate visa to continue living in India.
The change brings the exemption framework closer to the Citizenship Amendment Act, under which members of these six minority communities can seek accelerated citizenship if they entered India by December 31, 2014 and have resided in the country for six years.
The government has also offered a route to regularisation for some Pakistanis and people of Indian origin who have lived in India for years but cannot renew their foreign passports.
This covers Pakistani citizens who arrived on valid passports before December 31, 2009 intending to settle permanently, certain Partition-era migrants who returned from Pakistan and settled in Keralam, and Indian-origin holders of Malaysian or Singaporean citizenship unable to renew their passports. They will need to apply for visas to remain legally in India.
The notification formalises identity checks for travel across India’s open borders with Nepal and Bhutan. Indian citizens travelling to either country, and Nepali and Bhutanese citizens entering or leaving India, must show an identity document listed in the government’s Visa Manual to immigration officers.
Indians and citizens of Nepal and Bhutan can still travel directly between the three countries without passports. But an Indian travelling onward to a third country through Nepal or Bhutan must carry a passport, while Nepali and Bhutanese nationals travelling to or from China, Macau, Hong Kong or Pakistan must produce passports and visas.
Tibetan refugees who entered India on Kathmandu embassy permits between 1959 and May 30, 2003, or later through special entry permits at designated India-Nepal border posts, will continue to be exempt from passport and visa requirements, subject to registration with authorities.
The order also retains exemptions for Indian military personnel travelling on duty with their families on government transport, foreign forces arriving on warships or government vessels for repairs in India, and registered Sri Lankan Tamils who sought shelter in India by January 9, 2015.