More than six lakhs of Indians have renounced their citizenship in the past five years, according to Foreign Office data, with 40% of them in the United States.

The Indians of Australia and Canada came next in number of requests for renunciation. The total number also included people on a gold visa – where you invest in countries like, say, Portugal, Malta or Cyprus in exchange for residency or citizenship.

Indians who become citizens of another country must forfeit their Indian passport as the country does not offer dual citizenship, but they can apply for an Overseas Indian Citizen Card which would allow them to reside, work or to do business in India.

Click here
to see if you are eligible for immigration

The number of exits steadily increased from 2017, with 2019 having the highest number of waiver requests with 1,44,017. There was a sharp drop to 85,248 in 2020, possibly due to pandemic lockdowns, but figures available for nine months this year have shown it is on the rise again.

High net worth individuals

2019 also saw the departure of 7,000 wealthy Indians, according to a TOI report citing figures from the Global Wealth Migration Review, which is the highest in recent years and is believed to represent 2% of the nation’s wealthy people.

In HNWI migration, China led with a total of 16,000, followed by India with 7,000, while Russia came third with 5,500 exits.

Golden Visa

Almost 30 countries offer residency and / or citizenship by investment programs.

Global Citizenship and Residence Advisor Henley & Partners said the number of Indians learning about investment migration programs has grown over the years, increasingly aware of the ease of buy property in countries like Greece or Portugal, in the process of obtaining visa-free access. to 26 countries in the Schengen zone.

While the number of investigations showed a 30% year-over-year increase in the first half of 2021, the increase was 62% for the year 2020.

Passport Score

The higher your country’s passport index, the better visa-free access to many countries, without the hassle of immigration and bureaucratic delays.

The Henley Passport Index shows that the Indian passport is currently ranked 85th, providing visa-free / visa-on-arrival access to just 58 destinations. By comparison, if an Indian woman becomes a resident of Portugal or Greece, she gets visa-free access to 84 countries.