Iran has officially suspended visa-free entry for Indian citizens holding ordinary passports, a policy change that takes effect on November 22, 2025. While the publicly stated reason points to criminal misuse of the visa waiver for human trafficking and kidnapping, this decision occurs in a broader context of heightened regional tensions and Iranian suspicions regarding intelligence activities.
According to official statements from both the Iranian and Indian governments, the suspension of the visa-waiver facility is a direct response to its systematic misuse by criminal elements.
The Ministry of External Affairs of India has acknowledged multiple incidents where Indian nationals were lured to Iran under false pretenses. Unscrupulous agents promised them employment or assured them of onward transit to third countries in Europe or Australia. Upon arrival, many of these individuals were kidnapped by criminal gangs who demanded substantial ransoms from their families back in India. This visa waiver, introduced in February 2024, was intended solely for tourism, allowing a 15-day stay once every six months and explicitly prohibiting employment. The Iranian government has now suspended this arrangement to prevent further abuse.
Beyond the official narrative of criminal activity, the revocation of visa-free travel occurs against a backdrop of significant strain in Iran-India relations, fueled by allegations emerging from the June 2025 Iran-Israel war.
In the aftermath of that conflict, hardline Iranian media outlets began circulating serious accusations against Indian technical personnel. These reports alleged that Indian professionals working on strategic infrastructure projects, such as the Chabahar Port, may have inadvertently or deliberately assisted Israeli intelligence services. The allegations suggested that software backdoors could have been embedded in e-government systems, potentially providing access to sensitive data. These claims, though labeled as misinformation by some fact-checking organizations, have gained traction in certain Iranian circles.
This atmosphere of suspicion reportedly led to a crackdown. Iranian security forces arrested dozens of Indian nationals connected to projects in Chabahar, and in a significant subsequent move, approximately 1,800 Indian nationals were evacuated from Tehran and surrounding areas. This series of events points to a severe deterioration of trust, suggesting that the visa waiver suspension is not merely about tourism abuse but is also influenced by overarching security and intelligence concerns from the Iranian perspective.