CAA applicants must declare passport status, surrender foreign passports: Home Ministry

Applicants seeking citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 will be required to submit an affidavit declaring whether they hold a valid or expired passport from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh, as per the Citizenship Rules amendment notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday, May 18, 2026.

The move comes just days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power for the first time in West Bengal, where a majority of the Matua community, who will benefit from the CAA legislation, reside.

Most of the Matuas, who migrated from neighboring Bangladesh at different periods, do not have sufficient documents to apply for citizenship under the CAA. The 2019 legislation, which came into force on 11 March 2024 with the notification of the CAA Rules, requires the applicant to declare that they are foreigners along with a document issued by any government authority in Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan proving their origin in these three countries.

The CAA Rules also allow local priests or a “locally recognized community institution” to issue mandatory certificates documenting the applicant’s faith. The CAA provides citizenship to six non-Muslim communities (Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Jain, Buddhist and Christian) comprising Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.

On Monday, May 18, 2026, the MHA added a paragraph to Annexure 1C of the CAA application form where the applicant must declare whether the applicant “holds valid and/or expired passport(s) issued by the Government of Pakistan/Afghanistan/Bangladesh.” The form asks the applicant to specify the date and month of entry into India and states that if the information is incorrect, he/she may be stripped of citizenship.

The added paragraph stated that if the applicant has a valid or expired passport, details such as passport number, date and place of issue, expiry date must be provided and the passport must be submitted to the Chief Postal Commissioner or Postal Commissioner within 15 days of the approval of the citizenship application.

Before Assembly elections were announced in West Bengal, the MHA notified four committees headed by Central government officials in February and March to approve citizenship applications.

Although the law was introduced for undocumented immigrants, the Rules mentioned many documents that had to be provided by the applicants.