Foreign nationals living in India can take a sigh of relief as the central government has relaxed passport and visa rules. Several categories of foreigners, including certain Pakistani citizens, Sri Lankan Tamils, Tibetans and minority refugees, can enjoy the benefit under the Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) (Amendment) Order, 2026.
Not only foreigners, this amended immigration rule will also help Indians, Nepalis and Bhutanese citizens to travel across the neighbouring nations with updated travel and identification requirements, according to the Gazette.
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How These New Provisions Help Foreign Nationals
The new rules give some relief to Pakistani nationals who arrived in India by December 31, 2009 and wanted to settle here. They won’t have to renew their Pakistani passports anymore if they can't do so due to a lack of a computerised national identity card from Pakistan. There’s also a separate exemption for certain men belonging to the Muslim community, who were Indian citizens before they moved to Pakistan after Partition. It applies to those who left between 15 August 1947 and 31 December 1965 but came back to India by 31 December 2009. This benefit is only for people who have settled in Kerala and meet a few conditions- they should have no marriage or property ties in Pakistan, and their immediate family members should still be Indian citizens.
For people who are of Indian origin but have Malaysian or Singaporean citizenship and returned to India on or before December 31, 2009, using passports of both countries will also come under this provision, given that the passport has expired or cannot be renewed.
However, they would all need to carry an appropriate visa to continue residing in India.
Provisions To Help Hindu, Sikh, Other Communities
The latest provisions also cover six communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who came to India by 31 December 2024 will not have to meet the usual passport and travel document rules if they entered without valid papers or if their documents had already expired. They will, however, still need to get the proper visa to stay in the country after arriving.
A similar relaxation has been given to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who registered in India, as long as they sought shelter here before 9 January 2015. This lets eligible people stay without having to follow the normal passport and visa requirements.