More Than 2,000 Goans Surrendered Indian Passports In 3 years: MEA

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), over 2,000 Goans have approached the regional passport office (RPO) to surrender their passports with Portuguese nationality, while 114 passports have been revoked in the last three years. In an answer to South Goa Congress MP Francisco Sardinha, MEA said, “There is a well-defined law in place in terms of the Passports Act, 1967, and the Citizenship Act, 1955, to regulate such cases.”

Sardinha asked in the Lok Sabha if the ministry has data on the number of Goans and others who have had their passports revoked due to possession of Portuguese citizenship and if the matter has been raised with the Portuguese government as it raises legal issues in India. He also inquired about the steps taken by the government to resolve the issue.

Sardinha urged the government to provide a well-defined policy framework in this regard. Portugal confers its citizenship on anyone who was a Portuguese citizen in Goa prior to 1961, and two generations of their descendants and thousands of Goans have taken advantage of this provision to secure the Portuguese passport. This helped them work anywhere in the European Union.

According to the Henley Passport Index for 2023, the Portuguese passport is the world”s fifth-most powerful passport (India is ranked 83rd), and citizenship occurs when a Goan who has registered their birth in Portugal ceases to be an Indian citizen. As per Portuguese law, once a person”s birth is registered in Lisbon, he or she becomes a Portuguese citizen (irrespective of whether the person has a Portuguese passport). But as per Indian law, specifically Section 9(1) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, any Indian national who voluntarily acquires citizenship of another country ceases to be a citizen of India.