NEW DELHI — The Ministry of Home Affairs has amended the Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) Order, 2025, making it mandatory for Indian, Nepalese and Bhutanese citizens travelling between India, Nepal and Bhutan to produce specified identity documents before immigration officers, ANI reported on Thursday.

Source: ANI via NewKerala

Under the Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) (Amendment) Order, 2026, Indian citizens entering India from, or departing for, Nepal or Bhutan by land or air will have to produce any one of the documents specified in the government's Visa Manual to establish their identity, and furnish any information sought by immigration officers. The amendment was issued under Section 33 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 and published in the Gazette on Thursday, according to the Times of India.

Source: The Times of India

Third-country travel through Nepal or Bhutan still needs a passport

The exemption will not apply to Indian citizens travelling to, or returning from, countries other than Nepal or Bhutan through the India-Nepal or India-Bhutan borders. In those cases a valid passport is required and entry or exit must be only through designated immigration posts. Nepalese and Bhutanese citizens face the same identity-document rule for travel to and from India, and those who have boarded a flight or transited through China, Macau, Hong Kong or Pakistan must possess both a valid passport and a valid visa.

Who is exempt

The amended order lists the categories exempt from passport, travel-document and visa requirements: members of the Indian Navy, Army and Air Force travelling on official duty, along with family members accompanying them on government transport; registered Sri Lankan Tamil nationals who took shelter in India on or before January 9, 2015; foreign crew members of military vessels visiting India for repairs with a Military Ship Repair Permit; and certain Tibetan nationals who entered India through designated procedures and registered with the authorities.

Members of six minority communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians — from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who were compelled to seek shelter in India due to religious persecution, or fear of it, and who entered the country on or before December 31, 2024, are also covered by the exemption provisions. It applies whether they entered without valid travel documents or with documents that have since expired — but they will be required to obtain an appropriate category of visa after entering India for their continued stay.

News reports on the notification also said Pakistani nationals who entered India on or before December 31, 2009 with the intention of settling permanently may receive an exemption from regular passport renewal requirements, as may people of Indian origin who acquired Malaysian or Singaporean citizenship and returned to India by that date. The order does not change the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, whose fast-track citizenship cut-off remains December 31, 2014.