Indian passport delays in UAE to go on another week
03:46AM Mon 1 Sep, 2014
Abu Dhabi: Indian diplomatic missions in the UAE are expected to clear a backlog in applications for passport renewal within a week after facing delays during the past three months due to a shortage of passport booklets in India.
“We have started getting sufficient booklets regularly and the backlog is expected to clear within a few days — maximum a week. The entire process will be back to normal within a maximum two weeks,” T.P. Seetharam, the Indian Ambassador to the UAE, told Gulf News on Sunday.
Now passports issued in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are renewed within eight days; in the worst cases it takes up to two weeks. “There was delay up to three weeks [during the past three months],” the envoy said.
Indian missions in the UAE used to issue between 1,100 and 1,200 passports a day. The number had come down to around 800 to 900 [in the past three months], Seetharam said.
Between 260,000 and 290,000 passports are issued every year in the UAE.
There is only three or four days’ backlog in Abu Dhabi, he said.
Normally passports issued in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are renewed from the same office in five to seven working days. Passports issued from other passport offices are renewed within 40 days. This time-frame will be re-established soon, the envoy said.
Gulf News
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