Leaving home to build a better life is rarely simple. Leaving your country permanently is even harder. Yet nearly a million Indians have done just that in the past five years. Since 2020, more than nine lakh Indians have given up Indian citizenship. From 2022 onward, a clear pattern has emerged, with over two lakh people surrendering their Indian passports each year.
The figures were shared in Parliament during the ongoing Winter Session. The data showed that 2.06 million (over 20 lakh) Indians renounced citizenship between 2011 and 2024. Almost half of these renunciations took place in the last five years, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
For much of the 14-year period, annual totals remained relatively steady, ranging from about 1.2 lakh to 1.45 lakh people each year. That changed from 2022, when the number rose to above two lakh annually.
Replying to questions in the Lok Sabha, the Ministry of External Affairs said in written responses that the reasons are “personal and known only to the individual”, adding that many have taken foreign citizenship for “reasons of personal convenience”. The ministry also noted that India “recognises the potential of the global workplace in an era of knowledge economy”.
The trend comes amid a long-running brain drain that has affected India since the 1970s, rising over the decades and reaching a peak in the 2020s.
However, the profile of those leaving has also been discussed as changing. In the past, Indians migrated as indentured labourers during British rule, and later as skilled professionals such as doctors and engineers from the 1970s onwards. Former PMO media advisor and spokesperson Sanjaya Baru argued in his book Secession of the Successful: The Flight Out of New India that a newer wave involves wealthier Indians. He described four phases of emigration and said this is the fourth phase.
Baru wrote that this stage is still early but has already become highly visible. He described it as the migration of the children of the wealthy, high net worth individuals (HNIs), and the politically and socially influential elite—amounting, in his words, to a “secession of the successful”. Citing Morgan Stanley data, Baru said around 23,000 Indian millionaires have left the country since 2014.
No dual citizenship provision a key factor
One major reason many Indians give up their passports to obtain “more attractive” citizenships such as those of the US, UK, or Canada is that India does not permit dual citizenship. Across platforms from LinkedIn to Reddit, members of the Indian diaspora have described the emotional difficulty of giving up the document that defines their citizenship: the Indian passport.
Under Indian law, an Indian passport holder automatically loses Indian citizenship upon voluntarily acquiring citizenship of another country. For people who have lived and worked abroad for years, taking foreign citizenship is often necessary to secure full civic and professional rights.
This is governed by Section 9 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which states: “Any citizen of India who by naturalisation, registration or otherwise voluntarily acquires, or has at any time between 26th January, 1950 and the commencement of this Act voluntarily acquired, the citizenship of another country shall, upon such acquisition cease to be a citizen of India.”
In many developed countries, including the US, the UK and Canada, benefits and stability such as voting rights, social security, unrestricted residence, public-sector jobs and long-term security are closely linked to citizenship.
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India’s Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status allows visa-free travel and limited economic rights, but it does not grant political rights. OCI holders cannot vote, contest elections, or hold constitutional positions. For migrants who have settled abroad permanently, particularly those with families, foreign citizenship can become essential meaning renouncing Indian citizenship is not always purely a matter of choice, given the absence of dual citizenship.
Post-Covid surge in renunciations
The sharp post-pandemic increase may also be linked to disruptions during Covid-19. When the pandemic began in 2020, consulates shut down, travel was restricted, and immigration processes in many countries stalled. As a result, the number of Indians renouncing citizenship dropped from an average of about 1.3 lakh a year to around 85,000.
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