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India Extends Citizenship Window for Persecuted Minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh
Sep 03, 2025In a major policy shift, the Indian government has extended the eligibility cut-off date for citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) by a full decade, offering relief to thousands of persecuted religious minorities from neighbouring countries.
A fresh notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on September 1 now allows Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who entered India on or before December 31, 2024 to apply for Indian citizenship, even if they entered without valid travel documents or overstayed after their documents expired.
The move comes under the newly-implemented Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, and significantly expands the scope of the controversial CAA, which previously set the cut-off at December 31, 2014. The original law was passed by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in December 2019 to provide a fast-track to citizenship for non-Muslim minorities facing religious persecution in the three neighbouring Islamic nations.
“A person belonging to a minority community in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians — who were compelled to seek shelter in India due to religious persecution or fear thereof, and entered the country on or before December 31, 2024, without valid documents, or whose documents have since expired, will be eligible to apply,” the Home Ministry notification states.
The order clarifies that such individuals will be exempt from prosecution under The Foreigners Act, which criminalises illegal entry and stay in India. Instead, they can now seek naturalisation under the revised provisions.
To be eligible, applicants must demonstrate: One year of continuous residence in India immediately preceding the application, and At least five years of residence in India over the past fourteen years.
The new policy is expected to benefit a large number of undocumented migrants, particularly Hindu families from Pakistan, who entered India after 2014 and had been living in uncertainty about their legal status.
This decision is seen as a crucial move by the central government to implement the CAA in full effect after years of delays in framing the necessary rules. The citizenship law had remained dormant since its passage due to administrative bottlenecks and intense public backlash.
The CAA has been at the centre of political and social controversy since its introduction. Critics argue that the law undermines India’s secular constitution by excluding Muslim refugees and potentially laying the groundwork for religious discrimination.
Widespread protests erupted across the country following the Act’s passage in 2019, with concerns that it, in combination with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), could be used to marginalise Muslims.
However, the government has consistently defended the CAA, asserting that it is a humanitarian measure aimed at protecting religious minorities fleeing systemic persecution in Islamic-majority countries.
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