Bahrain15 November 20153 min read

Handwritten passports valid for 10 more days

By Muhammad Azam/DTNN azam@dt.bh. A ll the holders of the non-Machine Readable Passports must rush to their respective embassies in order to get their new passports immediately as the handwritten passports will not be valid and acceptable after November 25 anywhere across the world. Pakistan Ambassador to Bahrain

Editorial Team Legacy

Published 15 November 2015, 8:00 · Updated 22:13

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Handwritten passports valid for 10 more days

All the holders of the non-Machine Readable Passports must rush to their respective embassies in order to get their new passports immediately as the handwritten passports will not be valid and acceptable after November 25 anywhere across the world.

Pakistan Ambassador to Bahrain Muhammad Saeed Khan told DT News yesterday that he had strictly directed to the in-charge of Machine Readable Passports (MRP) that everyone who contacted the embassy for this purpose be issued their new passports on an urgent basis. “No delays will be accepted in this regard,” he adds.

Community Welfare Councillor Maqsood Qadir Shah, who is looking after all these issues in the Pakistan Embassy, informed that they were making special arrangements for the Pakistani nationals living in Bahrain and they would ensure that all the handwritten passports were renewed before November 24.

“If the number of people applying for the MRPs go up, we are ready to set up a special desk that will be work even during the weekends. Our main purpose is to ensure that everyone with handwritten passports gets new passports within the time limit set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO),” he said.

Shah said that anyone possessing handwritten passport should take this as a final warning and contact the embassy to change the passport, otherwise they would be in big trouble.

Attache Consular Indian Embassy B.S. Bisht said the holders of the handwritten passports should contact the embassy for their MRPs as soon as possible.

Bisht asked all those people with the old passports visiting Bahrain to leave for India before November 24 to avoid trouble. He said that the embassy could issue passports only to those Indians on resident visa and not on visit visa.

He said that many people were contacting the embassy for new passports and if someone had any problem, they could contact him directly at the embassy during the office hours.

The ICAO has set 24 November as a deadline for internationally phasing out all non-MRPs and afterwards all the countries can deny visa or entry to their country on handwritten passports.

The Indian Government has been issuing MRPs since 2001 and the passports issued before that and particularly those issued during mid-1990s with a validity of 20 years will fall in the category of non-MRPs.

All handwritten passports with pasted photographs and with no barcodes on the first page also fall in non-MRP category.

Photo Caption: B.S. Bisht and Maqsood Qadir Shah

Handwritten passports valid for 10 more days

Editorial Team Legacy

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