CHENNAI: Hand-written passports are set to be phased out globally in a year because of which the Regional Passport Office of Chennai has advised such applicants to go for re-issuing their passports.
The RPO has sent out the advisory as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) might not accept non-Machine Readable passports after November 24, 2015, which might lead to rejection of visas or denial of entry.
"Many persons might obtained their passports 10 years back when they were hand-written. They should now get it re-issued," said Regional Passport Officer Senthil Pandian, Regional Passport Officer Chennai Region.
Those who need re-issuance of passports *Hand-written passports *Less than 2 pages remaining *Passports expiring in less than six months, especially for those planning foreign tours |
In addition Indian citizens travelling on passports expiring in less than six months should renew their passports before any upcoming international travel.
Applicants having less than two pages remaining in their passport have been advised to ensure that they apply for re-issuance of passports. This is because some countries don't accept passports with fewer than two pages remaining.
Frequent travellers might opt for the Jumbo passport which contains 64 pages.
The RPO advisory has said that the universal practice is to get a new passport if the current one crosses the nine-year mark.
To facilitate applications for replacement of passports with all the above mentioned issues, the RPO has organised an exclusive 'Passport Mela' at its Seva Kendra in Saligrammam on December 27. Appointments have already been released from Wednesday.