Indian passports not valid |
Indian passports that are handwritten or issued before 2001 with a validity of 20 years are no longer valid for travel, as of Nov. 24, 2015.The International Civil Administration Organization has deemedthat all passports issued anywhere in the world must now be machine-readable to comply with airport regulations worldwide. Foreign governments may deny a visa or entry to a person travelling on anon-machine readable passport from Nov. 25.The Indian Embassy noted that 286,000 handwritten passports were still in circulation as of November 2014. The Government of India has been issuing machine-readable passports since 2001.Indian citizens residing in India and abroad and holding such passports with validity beyond Nov. 24, 2015 are advised to apply for re-issue of their passports wellbefore the deadline in order to avoid any inconvenience in obtaining valid visa or international travel. Many international travelers may not realize that having an unexpired passport is sometimes not enough to obtain visas or to enter certain foreign countries.Indian citizens traveling on passports which may expire in less than six months should renew their passports before any upcoming international travel.
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