New Rules and Coloured Changes in Indian Passport

With the External Affairs Ministry deciding to issue a different coloured passport for certain categories, and discontinue printing of the last page, the Indian passport will look different.

Here’s a look at some of the proposed changes:

1. The new passports will not carry the last page containing details of residence and parents name. Since 2012, all passports have had a barcode, and by scanning this, the information can be accessed by immigration officials. This is a measure aimed at not revealing more information than required on the document.

2. Does this mean all existing passport holders need to apply for a renewal of their passports? No, all existing passports will remain valid until their expiry date. The new format passport will be issued on renewal.

3. There is likely to be a change in the colour of the passports as well.

4. The new passports will also not have the names of parents printed on it, as is the practice currently. The ministry has been evaluating submissions that in case of children of single parents, the name of the estranged father/mother need not be printed on the passport. Given that the last page of the passport itself will be made redundant, this objective is also met. However, clarity is awaited on whether the names of both parents would be collected during the application process, or not.

5. In August last year, the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems Project (CCTNS) was to be linked with the passport service of the Ministry of External Affairs, and it will replace physical police verification for passport applicants with online verification in a year. This will further reduce the time taken to process a passport.Read more about it here.