Top Stories,

Good News : Passport first, verification later for first-timers

Getting Passport has become easy now against the long awaiting process.

Several reforms are being made to make the process easier.

External Affairs ministry has made two major changes in the issuing of fresh passports, wherein citizens might get a fresh passport within a week of applying for it.

 Earlier, the whole process would take at least a month, with police verification included.

But now the procedure has been simplified as well as police verification coming after the issuing of the passport, for speeding up the process.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has assured passport seekers that they would get passport within a week if they could provide four documents along with their application. The documents are copy of Aadhar card, voter ID, PAN card along with an affidavit of no criminal history.

Sushma tweeted:

1. If you submit application with copies of Aadhar, Voter ID and PAN Card with an affidavit of no criminal case, we will issue the Passport.

You can choose any appointment date from the earliest five available dates for Passport related services.

Police verification is an essential part of issuing passport. Normally, it takes as long as a month. Hence passports are delayed.

After the passport is issued within a week, police verification will be done.

There will be no extra charge for the service, a statement issued by the ministry said.

 The process is subject to online validation of the Aadhaar number while processing and an approval from the granting officer.