Do you need a new India visa if you get a second passport and your old passport is cancelled or taken away?

If the old passport is not confiscated but only cancelled, it is usually returned to the holder. In that case, travelers to India typically carry both passports: the new valid one and the old one containing the visa.

Cancellation of the old passport can be done in different ways: some offices punch holes, while others cut out part of the page with the passport number. The key practical point is not the method itself, but whether you keep the passport so you can show it together with your India visa.

If your first passport is taken away when the second one is issued, and your India visa is tied to the old passport details, that visa usually cannot be used anymore. In that situation, travelers normally apply for a new India visa using the new passport.

Based on the discussion, second-passport rules may be interpreted differently: one applicant was told that only a biometric passport could be issued. In practice, it is worth confirming with your own passport office which type of second passport they actually issue.

There is an important practical nuance: if the second passport is issued as your only valid travel document, the old one may be taken away. In that case, the two-passport workaround for entering India no longer works because you do not keep the passport containing the visa.

If you already hold two valid passports, the old one is usually not confiscated when another document of the same type is issued. But if the case is unusual, such as an expiring passport or a different passport type, the procedure may differ, and that matters for an India visa.