DOHA: Indian citizens holding handwritten passports and 20-year passports with validity beyond November 24, 2015, should get their passports re-issued and obtain machine readable passports (MRPs) before the deadline, the Indian Embassy said in a statement yesterday.
The embassy said this is to avoid any inconvenience in obtaining foreign visa or immigration problem after the deadline.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has set November 24, 2015 as deadline for globally phasing out all non-machine readable Passports.
From November 25, 2015, foreign governments may deny visa or entry to any person travelling with non-machine readable passports.
All handwritten passports with pasted photos earlier issued by the Indian government are considered non-MRPs.
All 20-year validity passports also fall in this category.
The government started issuing machine readable passports in 2001.
All new Indian passports are ICAO-compliant machine readable ones.
The Peninsula
