DOHA: Indian citizens with handwritten passports and 20-year passports with validity beyond November 24, 2015, should get their passports re-issued and obtain machine readable ones, the Indian embassy said in a statement yesterday.
International Civil Aviation Organisation has set a deadline of November 24, 2015 for globally phasing out of all non-machine readable passports.
From November 25 onwards, countries may deny visa or entry to any person travelling on a non-machine readable passport.
The Indian government has been issuing machine readable passports since 2001.
The passports, however, issued before 2001 and particularly those issued during mid-1990s with a validity of 20 years will fall in the category of non-MRPs. All handwritten passports with pasted photographs are also considered non-MRPs.
By the end of November 2014, it was estimated that there were about 286,000 handwritten Indian passports in circulation.
Details related to passport services are available on the website www.passportindia.gov.in
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