The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a gazette notification dated May 18, 2026 — G.S.R. 369(E) — amending the Citizenship Rules, 2009, to introduce a new passport disclosure and surrender requirement for citizenship applicants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh seeking Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
The amendment, formally titled the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2026, comes into force on the date of its publication in the Official Gazette. It inserts a new paragraph (iiiA) in Schedule IC of the Citizenship Rules, 2009 — after the existing paragraph (iii) — introducing a mandatory declaration in the citizenship application form.
Under the new clause, citizenship applicants are required to declare one of two positions. Either they confirm that they are not in possession of a valid or expired passport issued by the government of Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Bangladesh. Or they confirm that they are in possession of such a passport — valid or expired — and provide full details including passport number, date of issue, place of issue, and date of expiry. In the second case, the applicant must agree to surrender the passport to the Senior Superintendent of Post or Superintendent of Post concerned within 15 days of the approval of the citizenship application.
The notification was signed by Gaya Prasad, Joint Secretary, under file number 26030/34/2025-IC.I. The principal Citizenship Rules were originally published in the Gazette of India on February 25, 2009, and were last amended by notification G.S.R. 172(E) dated March 11, 2024 — the notification that operationalised the Citizenship Amendment Act for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.
The May 2026 amendment addresses a procedural gap in the citizenship application framework — specifically, the question of what applicants who hold or previously held passports from the three specified countries must do with those documents upon receiving Indian citizenship. By requiring disclosure upfront in the application form and mandating surrender within 15 days of approval, the rules ensure that the administrative trail of prior nationality documents is captured and that applicants do not retain documents from a foreign government after becoming Indian citizens.
The amendment is procedural in nature — it does not change the eligibility criteria for citizenship under the CAA or the Citizenship Act, nor does it affect the categories of people who may apply. It applies equally to applicants who do not hold any such passport — who simply declare that fact — and to those who do, with the additional obligation of surrender post-approval.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For citizenship application queries, refer to the official Ministry of Home Affairs portal.