Hand Written Passports no Longer Valid Across India

If you have an hand-written passport, it is high time to replace it with the modern machine-readable one. With the Central Government strictly adhering to the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s November 24 deadline for the mandatory machine-readable passports (MRP), your handwritten passport may no longer be valid. The Union government has estimated that there are still around 2.5 lakh handwritten passports in the country. Officials say this means the passport offices across the country are busy replacing the handwritten documents. The regional passport office in Chennai, which caters to nine districts including Puducherry, has already issued a notification asking people with handwritten passports to return and replace them with a modern one. “We have notified people two years ago and have issued MRPs to all those who have applied so far,” said an official at the regional office. The handwritten passports were issued until a few decades ago and have a validity for 20 years. The immigration department officials warn that anyone with a handwritten passport could be refused entry at many international borders or could have their trips cancelled at the airport. Sources reveal that the ICAO deadline could pose a huge challenge to passport offices in the country. While officials refuse to give an exact figure of handwritten passports, it is learnt that as per figures available till November 2015, there are 2.5 lakh handwritten or non-machine readable passports still in circulation across the country.   The New Indian Express