People standing in line at the airport in Amritsar. (File)
The craze of going abroad for the last few years in Punjab had increased very fast. There was a lot of politics on this issue in elections too, but now the situation is changing. Due to strict rules in other countries including Canada, Australia, the number of passports made from Punjab
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According to the data of the Ministry of External Affairs, from 1 January to 30 June 2025, Punjab has received an average of 1978 passports daily, which is the lowest in the last several years. Whereas, in 2024, this figure was around 2,906 daily.
The Punjab government is calling it its success, as they gave the slogan of ‘return return’ before coming to power. However, the real reason is also that countries like Canada, Australia and America have tightened the rules of visas and immigration, due to which the youth dreaming abroad have to stop.
The biggest decline in 10 years If we look at the figures of making passports so far this year, the situation seems to be quite changed. About 3.60 lakh passports have been made in the state from January to June 2025. If this speed persists throughout the year, by the end of the year this number will reach around 7.50 lakhs, which will be the lowest in the last four years.
Earlier in 2021, the least passports were made, then only 6.44 lakh applications were received. However, in 2021, this was due to the ban on international travel and lockdown of passport offices. But if you leave 2021, then this is considered to be the biggest decline in the last 10 years.
Every third person passport holder Since 2014, a total of 95.41 lakh passports have been made in Punjab, while the state has a population of about 65 lakh houses and about 3 crore. This means that every third person in Punjab is a passport holder, who shows how much the desire to go abroad is here.
Tension increased in Canada, jobs decreased Now there has not been a decrease in making passports only, but the number of youth returning from Canada is also increasing. Returned youth say that there is a lot of tension there and many people are going into depression due to frequent stress. It does not get a job for several months, and until the job is available, it becomes difficult to run expenses.
Jobs in Canada are no longer the same as before. In most places, there is only demand for trend staff, which has made it even more difficult to get jobs for youth with new or low experience. This is the reason why many youths have either returned or are planning to return.
Fear increased among youth going abroad alone The biggest reason for the decline in making passports is believed to be the change in Canada’s visa and immigration rules. Especially after the tussle between India and Canada, now the youth are clipping from going there. Those whose relatives are already settled there, now they seem willing to go to Canada, while the youth who are thinking of going abroad alone have increased fear.
