Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025

What Is the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025?

The Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 (Act 13 of 2025) is India's consolidated law on the entry, stay, exit and registration of foreign nationals. It received the assent of the President on 4 April 2025 and came into force on 1 September 2025. The Act replaces four separate, decades-old statutes with a single framework and gives the Bureau of Immigration an express statutory basis for the first time.

For any foreign company, investor or expatriate employee in India, this Act — not the Foreigners Act, 1946 that older guidance still cites — is now the governing law on registration with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), the reporting duties of hotels and institutions that host foreigners, and the penalties for getting either wrong.

Legal Basis and Commencement

Section 1 — Short Title and Commencement

Section 1(1) of the Act names it the "Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025." Section 1(2) left the commencement date to a notification in the Official Gazette. The Central Government exercised that power on 31 August 2025: notification S.O. 3981(E), published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii), "appoints the 01st day of September, 2025, as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force." The Act had already been published in the Gazette on 4 April 2025, the day it received Presidential assent — the roughly five-month gap between assent and commencement is why older material online can still describe the Foreigners Act, 1946 as current law.

Section 36 — Repeal of Four Earlier Statutes

Section 36(1) of the Act text provides that "the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Immigration (Carriers' Liability) Act, 2000 ... are hereby repealed." All four were more than 25 years old, and the Foreigners Act, 1946 in particular had supplied the definition of "foreigner" and the registration and penalty framework used across Indian visa practice for nearly 80 years.

Section 36(2) is a savings clause: anything already done, and any rule, order, direction or penalty imposed under the repealed Acts, continues to have effect — "in so far as it is not inconsistent with the provision of this Act" — as if made under the corresponding provision of the new Act. A registration, permit or pending order issued before 1 September 2025 does not lapse; it carries over.

Registration of Foreigners — Section 6

Section 6 states the core obligation plainly: "The foreigners on arrival in India shall be required to register with the Registration Officer concerned, subject to such conditions and in such manner as may be prescribed." The Act leaves the day-count thresholds and forms to the rules and to the Bureau of Immigration's own registration-requirements guidance, which currently sets out:

• Foreign nationals on a Student, Employment, Medical, or missionary-purpose (E-3) visa valid for more than 180 days must register with the jurisdictional FRRO/FRO within 14 days of arrival in India.
• Business visa holders must register if their aggregate stay in a calendar year, or a single continuous stay, exceeds 180 days.
• Holders of any other visa (other than an Official or Diplomatic passport) must register if their aggregate stay in a calendar year, or their continuous stay on each visit, exceeds 180 days.
• Pakistani nationals must register with their local FRO within 24 hours of arrival.
• Children under 12, and OCI cardholders, are exempt from registration; citizens of Nepal and Bhutan are exempt from the visa and registration requirement generally.

Non-compliance "shall result in legal consequences or monetary penalty or both," in the Bureau's own words — which in practice means exposure under Sections 21 to 24 of the Act, covered below.

Obligations on Hotels, Landlords, Educational Institutions and Hospitals — Sections 8 to 10

Three sections extend the registration net beyond the foreigner personally:

• Section 8 makes it "the duty of the keeper of accommodation" — hotels, hostels, paying-guest houses, home-stays and, where the civil authority directs, even non-commercial residential premises — to submit foreigners' particulars to the Registration Officer.
• Section 9 places the same duty on every university and educational institution admitting a foreign student.
• Section 10 places it on every hospital, nursing home or medical institution providing lodging to a foreign patient or attendant.

The Bureau of Immigration's operational guidance implements the Section 8 and Section 10 duties through Form III, transmitted electronically "as soon as may be but not beyond twenty-four hours, after the arrival of a foreigner," with departure details transmitted on the same twenty-four-hour basis and records kept electronically for at least one year. Section 9 leaves the manner of furnishing information by educational institutions to be prescribed, without naming a form or a deadline in the Act itself.

The Bureau of Immigration — Section 5

Section 5(1) provides that "there shall be constituted a Bureau called the Bureau of Immigration for performing the immigration functions and such other functions as may be prescribed." Section 5(3) vests "the general supervision, directions and control of the Bureau of Immigration" in the Central Government, while "the overall supervision of the immigration functions" vests in the officer appointed as Commissioner of Bureau of Immigration. Section 5(4) provides that the Commissioner is assisted by Foreigners Regional Registration Officers (FRROs), Foreigners Registration Officers (FROs), Chief Immigration Officers and Immigration Officers authorised by the Central Government.

The Bureau of Immigration itself is not new — it has operated under the Ministry of Home Affairs for decades — but the 2025 Act is what gives its constitution, its Commissioner post and its functions an express statutory basis, rather than resting on executive order alone.

Penalties — Sections 21 to 24

The Bureau of Immigration's own public guidance on penalties summarises the overall exposure for foreigners and for the carriers, hoteliers, educational institutions and hospitals that deal with them as "penalties ranging from 10000 to 3 lakhs for each offence, as well as imprisonment" — consistent with Section 23 being the provision that catches most compliance failures, with Sections 21 and 22 reserved for document-related offences.

Why This Matters for a Foreign Company or Investor

Most foreign companies encounter this Act through their people, not their paperwork:

• Every seconded executive or expatriate employee is a "foreigner" under Section 2(f) of the Act — defined simply as "a person who is not a citizen of India" — regardless of seniority or how short the assignment is.
• Registration is the employee's obligation, but the company usually manages it. An Employment visa valid beyond 180 days triggers the 14-day FRRO registration window; HR or a local employer-of-record partner typically files it.
• If the company arranges accommodation — a corporate lease, a serviced apartment booked in the company's name — it can itself be the "keeper of accommodation" under Section 8, with its own Form III filing duty, separate from the employee's Section 6 registration.
• Penalties attach to both the individual and the host. A foreign employee's registration default is punishable under Section 23; a hotel, landlord or institution that fails to report is exposed under the same section, since it "contravenes any other provision of this Act."

Practical Example

A German engineering firm sends a project manager to India on an Employment visa valid for 12 months to lead a plant commissioning. Because the visa exceeds 180 days, the employee must register with the jurisdictional FRRO within 14 days of arrival (Section 6, per the Bureau of Immigration's registration-requirements guidance). The company books her a serviced apartment in its own name for the assignment; as keeper of that accommodation, the company must also transmit her particulars on Form III to the Registration Officer within twenty-four hours of her arrival, and again within twenty-four hours of her departure (Section 8). If either filing is missed, the shortfall is a contravention "for which no specific punishment is provided" — Section 23 — carrying imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of up to ₹3 lakh, or both, for whoever is responsible for the missed filing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 replace the Foreigners Act, 1946?

Yes. Section 36(1) repeals the Foreigners Act, 1946 along with the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, and the Immigration (Carriers' Liability) Act, 2000, effective 1 September 2025. Registrations, orders and penalties from before that date carry over under the savings clause in Section 36(2), so pending matters continue as if made under the new Act.

Do all foreign employees working in India have to register with the FRRO?

Registration turns on visa validity and length of stay, not job title. Under the Bureau of Immigration's current guidance, a foreign employee on an Employment visa valid for more than 180 days must register with the jurisdictional FRRO or FRO within 14 days of arrival. Shorter assignments, and OCI cardholders, generally fall outside this requirement.

What happens if a foreign employee's registration is missed or filed late?

A registration default is a contravention of the Act for which Section 23 provides the punishment: imprisonment of up to three years, or a fine of up to ₹3 lakh, or both. The Bureau of Immigration also warns that visa non-compliance can affect the chances of future entry into India or future Indian visas.

Who is responsible for reporting a foreign employee's stay — the employee or the employer?

Both, for different things. Section 6 makes registration the foreigner's own obligation. Separately, Sections 8 to 10 place a reporting duty on whoever hosts the foreigner — the keeper of any accommodation, a university, or a hospital — to furnish particulars to the Registration Officer, independent of whether the foreigner has separately registered.

Has the Bureau of Immigration itself changed under the new Act?

The Bureau of Immigration has functioned under the Ministry of Home Affairs for decades. Section 5 of the 2025 Act now constitutes it in statute, vests the overall supervision of immigration functions in the Commissioner of Bureau of Immigration, and confirms that FRROs, FROs, Chief Immigration Officers and Immigration Officers assist the Commissioner.

See also: Visas & FRRO Registration, Global Mobility, and OCI (Overseas Citizen of India).

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