Nearly 26,000 Goans Surrendered Passports In 10 Years: CM Pramod Sawant (image-facebook/Dr Pramod Sawant)
Roughly 26,000 Goans surrendered their Indian passports in Goa in the last decade and applied for a “new visa/exit permit,” said Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in the state legislative assembly.
His statement comes in response to a question by Congress MLA Yuri Alemao. Sawant said that 25,939 Goans surrendered their Indian passports between January 1, 2014, and March 31, 2024.
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Citing a report from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office, Sawant said that 2,037 individuals applied for new visa/exit services after surrendering their Indian passports in 2014.
In 2016, the number rose to 4,121 before dropping to 3,623 in 2017 and even more to 2,958 in 2019. Due to travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number witnessed a sharp drop to 954 in 2021. However, it shot up once again to 2,094 in 2023.
A significant portion of the individuals from the state surrendered their Indian passports to acquire Portuguese nationality, reported the Indian Express, quoting unidentified officials.
Notably, Portugal extends citizenship to individuals born in Goa before December 19, 1961, the day Goa liberated from Portuguese rule, and two subsequent generations. A Portuguese passport allows visa-free access to several countries, including the UK and the EU.
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After the Ministry of External Affairs issued a directive on November 30, 2022, as per which authorities were instructed to revoke passports instead of issuing a “surrender certificate,” several Goans were unable to obtain the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cards.
As a result, numerous people in the state have been registering their births in Portugal to acquire citizenship in the country, opening up pathways for both employment and educational opportunities abroad.
