The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) led by Sushma Swaraj, recently announced new passport rules that really makes sense for the entire country.
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Expected to make everyone’s life easier, MEA has taken new initiatives in order to streamline the entire process and cut down the paperwork to a major extent. The new rules and changes include:
Earlier, all the applicants born on or after 26th January 1989 had to provide the Birth Certificate as the proof of Date of Birth (DOB) mandatorily as per the extant statutory provisions of the Passport Rules, 1980. This rule is no more mandatory as the applicants can submit a copy of any one of the below mentioned documents that contains their DOB.
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- Birth Certificate or any other equivalent legal document issued by authorities under empowered under the Registration of Birth & Deaths Act, 1969.
- Transfer Certificate, School Leaving or Matriculation Certificate issued by a recognized educational board.
- PAN Card issued by the Income Tax Department
- Aadhar Card or E-Aadhar
- Copy of the extract of the service record only for the Government servants or the Pay Pension Order for retired Government Servants, duly attested or certified by the officer or in-charge of the Administration of the concerned Ministry or Department.
- Driving licence issued by the Transport Department of concerned State Government.
- Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) issued by the Election Commission of India.
- Policy Bond issued by the Public Life Insurance Corporations/Companies
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Issues regarding mentioning father’s name or not, for children with single parent, and issuing new passports for adopted children have also been addressed as per the Ministry of External Affairs. The new changes are as follows:
- Single parents are now eligible to apply for their children’s passports.
- New passports can be printed without the names of both the parents on applicant’s request from now on.
- For the orphaned children, a declaration that confirms the DOB of the applicant by the Head of the Orphanage or the Child Care Home on their official letterhead would suffice.
- Children who are not born out of the wedlock, the submission of Annexure G which is an affidavit or declaration by the parent or guardian is required.
- For those children who are domestically adopted in-country, the registered adoption deed has been substituted by a self declaration on a plain paper.
- Post merging few Annexes and removing some, the total number of annexes has been cut down to 9 from 15 as per the Passport Rule, 1980.
- All the swearing by/before any Notary/Executive Magistrate/First Class Judicial Magistrate, etc have been substituted by one single self declaration with all the annexes on a plain paper.
- No marriage certificates are required for married applicants.
- Individuals who have been divorced or separated need not provide neither the name of their spouse nor the divorce decree.
- The Government staff who need a passport on urgent basis but could not get their Identity Certificate or No-Objection Certificate from their employer, can now issue a passport by submitting a self declaration in Annexure N which states that they’ve given prior information to their employer for having applied for a passport to the Passport Issuing Authority (PIA).
- Last but not the least, Sadhus or Sanyasis can now get the name of their Guru printed on their passport instead of their biological parents provided they submit at least one legal document wherein their Guru’s name has been recorded against their parent’s name.
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Going forward, this information will be communicated to all the gazetted offices in India and abroad soon.
Makes sense right? We know even you’re happy with this news. So make yourself heard and share your opinions with us in the comments below.
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