Religious minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh applying to obtain Indian nationality will have to disclose details of any valid or expired passport issued by these countries, the ministry of home affairs said in a gazette notification issued on Monday.
In case the applicant does hold a passport, they will have surrender the document within 15 days of getting Indian citizenship, the notification said. Officials familiar with the development said that the MHA move comes after some cases of applicants holding invalid or expired passports were detected. India doesn’t allow its citizens to hold two passports.
The notification said that applicants will have to declare that “they are not in possession of a valid and/or expired passport (s) issued by the government of Pakistan/Afghanistan/Bangladesh”. If they do have such a document, they will have to provide the passport number, date of issue, place of issue and date of expiry and subsequently surrender it within 15 days of the citizenship application being approved.
The notification amends the citizenship rules that were notified in 2024 to enable the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed 2019. The CAA fast-tracks Indian citizenship to persons belonging to six minority communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, and Christians -- who came to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
{{/usCountry}}The notification amends the citizenship rules that were notified in 2024 to enable the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed 2019. The CAA fast-tracks Indian citizenship to persons belonging to six minority communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, and Christians -- who came to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
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