A Passport is an essential travel document for those who are travelling abroad for education, pilgrimage, tourism, business purposes, medical attendance and family visits. During the last few years, the growing economy and spreading globalization have led to an increased demand for Passport and related services. To meet this increased demand, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) launched the Passport Seva Project (PSP) in May 2010.
Passport Seva enables simple, efficient and transparent processes for delivery of passport and related services. This project creates a countrywide networked environment for Government staff and integrates with the State Police for physical verification of applicant's credentials and with India Post for delivery of passports.
In recent years, the Government of India has taken many initiatives to usher in an era of e-Governance to improve the delivery of public services. The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) includes many high impact e-Governance projects that have been identified as Mission Mode Projects (MMP's). One such project focuses on reforming Passport services in India.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is responsible for issuance of Passports to Indian Citizens through a network of 36 Passport offices across the Country and 190 Indian Missions and Posts abroad.
The project has been implemented in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode with Tata Consultancy Services, selected through a public competitive procurement process. Under this program, the sovereign and fiduciary functions like verification, granting and issuing of passport have been retained by MEA. The ownership and strategic control of the core assets including data/information is with MEA.
Applicants are advised to visit their jurisdictional passport office's home page under Passport Office Page to know about additional documents required, if any.
Applicants are required to furnish original documents along with one set of self-attested photocopies of the same at the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) for processing.
Minor
- It is assumed that consent of both parents is available, unless specified.
- For minor applicants, present address proof document in the name of parent(s) can be submitted.
- It is advised to carry original and self-attested copies of parents passport to Passport Seva Kendra (PSK), in case parents possess passport.
- For minor applicants, documents can be attested by parents.
- The minor applicant is eligible for Non-ECR till he/she attains the age of 18 years.
ECR/ECNR
- ECR stands for Emigration Check Required and ECNR stands for Emigration Check Not Required.
- ECR status will be printed in the passport of the applicants who fall in the ECR category.For those falling in the Non-ECR category, there will be no specific mention in the passport.
- The practice of putting Non-ECR (previously ECNR) stamp has been discontinued.
