The Ministry of External Affairs advices Check passport validity, visa pages before traveling

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has advised international travelers to check validity of their existing passport and apply well before the date of expiry of their passport under “Reissue” category.

Regional Passport Officer (RPO) Dasari Balaiah said that many international travellers may not realize that having an unexpired passport was sometimes not enough to obtain visas or to enter certain foreign countries. Indian citizens travelling on passports which may expire in less than six months should renew their passports before any upcoming international travel. It is especially important to check the passports needs of any minor who may be accompanying their parents as passports for minors have a shorter validity period (five years) than passports for adults (10 years).

Since some countries do not accept passports which may have fewer than two pages remaining, people should check their passport to ensure that they have enough visa pages. “There is no provision of additional booklets or visa sheets and passport holders will be required to apply reissuance of passport following standard procedures,” Balaiah explained, adding that frequent travellers may opt for jumbo passport containing 64 pages.

According to Balaiah, all the passport applicants are advised to visit official portal www.passportindia.gov.in only and follow instructions contained in it for applying for any passport and passport related services as per the prescribed fee.

Alternatively, applicants may also use official mobile app – mPassport Seva which can be downloaded from Android and ioS application stores. Applicants are cautioned not to use fake websites registered in the domain name*.org, *in, *.com such as www.indiapassport.org, www.online-passportindia.com, www.passportindiaportal.in, www.passport-india.in, www.passport-seva.in, www.applypassport.org and many other similar looking websites.

As per the flow chart in the Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) or Passport Seva Laghu Kendras (PSLKs) all the applicants should go through all the three



counters i.e., Counter A, Counter B and Counter C and then only exit from the PSKs/PSLK.

Quite often it is observed that despite following the flow chart, applicants exit without attending at counter B and or counter C causing pendency in process of their respective application.

In such cases, they need to reschedule their visit to PSK and complete the remaining process. In some instances where applicants do not produce sufficient documents for processing their application, they would be advised to reschedule their appointment once they have all the documents and then visit PSK/PSLK/POPSK for further process.

Every applicant has an option to reschedule their appointment at a PSK/PSLK/POPSK for a maximum number of three times only. Any applicant, who exhausts maximum number of appointments, may approach RPO, Secunderabad for rescheduling their appointment.

In this connection, all are here informed that fee once paid is enough and they need not pay additional fee for rescheduling their visit to the PSKs/PSLK/PoPSKs.

For more details related to passport services, website www.passportindia.gov.in  or national call centre (1800 258-1800) may be accessed. For redressal of their grievances, all passport applicants can reach out to RPO, Hyderabad through the office landline phones 040 27715333/27715115 or through their registered email id at rpo.hyderabd@mea.gov.in.

Alternatively, the applicants may visit public enquiry counters in RPO, adjacent to Prashanth Theatre, Secunderabad between 9.30 am and 4 pm on all working days, with all relevant documents, for redressal of their grievances any passport related assistance

Hence, all are hereby advised to contact RPO directly for any passport and passport related services and not to contact any middlemen. Further, all are advised to use the official website and mobile app for passport and passport related services and not to fall prey to touts or brokers.