Difference

between passport
and visa?
 INTRODUCTION
 Two of the most used terms in travel vocabulary are 'passport' and 'visa'.
For travelling outside your country, the passport is a necessary document.
 The passport is a document that the national government issues to a citizen
of the country. The passport is a document of identity and contains a person's
name, date of birth, gender, address and place of birth.
 The purpose of a passport is to identify the holder of the document. For
Indians, the navy blue ordinary passport needs to be renewed every 10 years.
 A visa is an official permission that a certain country needs to grant a
passport holder of another country before their visit to the former country. A
visa is a temporary authorization for a passport holder to travel to a country.
 The visa is usually stamped on a passport.
 TYPES OF PASSPORT
1. Ordinary passport: An ordinary passport is navy blue in colour and is issued for
ordinary travel or business trips.
2. Diplomatic passport: The cover of a diplomatic passport is maroon in colour. It is
issued only to Indian diplomats, diplomatic couriers or top-ranking government
officials.
3. Official passport: Apart from the navy blue and maroon passports, the Indian
government also issues a white-cover passport to individuals who are representing the
Indian government on official business.
Apart from this, if an Indian travelling abroad loses his or her
passport in a foreign country, the Indian Embassy in the
country usually grants an Emergency Certificate with which
the person can travel back to India.
 TYPES OF VISA
1. Tourist visa: A country grants a tourist visa to a visitor for touristic travel purposes.

2. Transit visa: A transit visa is issued to a person if he or she is travelling through a certain country
and not staying there. A transit visa is usually valid for 5 days or less (depends on the country that
serves as a transit point) and is granted if a person is passing through a second country to reach a
third destination.

3. Business visa: Businessmen who wish to travel to a country for commercial activities are granted a
business visa.

4. Temporary worker visa: This category of visa is for workers who are temporarily employed in a
foreign country.

5. Student visa: As the name says, a student visa is for students who go to study in a foreign country.
 IMPORTANT
• Indian passport ranked 85th on the updated 2021 list. Last year, India
held 84th position. Indian passport got a score of 58, which means
Indian passport holders get to visit 58 countries without prior visa.
• Afghanistan's passport got the last position this year too, and came out
as the world's worst passport with a score of 26.
World’s 5 most powerful passports:
1. Japan: 191
2. Singapore: 190
3. Germany, South Korea: 189
4. Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain: 188
5. Austria, Denmark: 187
 Passport Visa
• It is an official permission to stay
• It is an official travel document. It in the visiting country for a
serves as a personal identification specific duration mentioned in
of the bearer. the visa.
• It confirms your identity while • It shows you have the permission
your travel to other countries. to stay in the visiting country for
• It is in the form of a small booklet the specified duration.
with few blank pages for official • It is not a separate document. It
documentation. is a stamp that appears on your
• It has many types such as passport.
ordinary passport, temporary • It has many types such as tourist
passport, and diplomatic visa, business visa, transit visa,
passport. worker visa, and student visa.
 Passport
• It is issued by the
government to the citizen of
its country.
• Applying and getting a
passport is not a complicated
process.
• It has a photo of the bearer
and details like name, age,
sex, nationality, date of birth,
place of birth, expiry date etc. of visit, expiry date, number
Visa
• It is issued by the
government official of the
visiting country.
• It can be a complicated
process as it allows you to
enter and stay in another
country.
• It provides details like
duration of stay, the purpose
of visits allowed etc.