Passport verification limited to select cases

Passport applicants can now heave a sigh of relief as the police verification to obtain a passport is now limited only to the applicants with criminal antecedents. This initiative was taken by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to simplify and streamline the police verification process.

Regional Passport Officer (RPO) E Vishnu Vardhan Reddy speaking in this regard said the students are likely to benefit from this move to a large extent in getting passports without delay.

At present, the police visit the resident of every applicant physically for verification and submit a report to the Regional Passport Office for delivering the passport within the stipulated time.

The Ministry now has directed the officials concerned of all States and Union Territories (UTs) to limit passport verification to only applicants with criminal antecedents cutting off the need for physical verification by visiting the address of the applicant.

The integration of ‘Verifast’ application used by the Telangana police for passport verification with the ‘Passport Seva System’ was also approved by the Ministry and the process is expected to be completed by the end of June.

Mr Reddy further said that the process is likely to further reduce the time taken for police verification in the state.