Apply for an Indian Passport with just four documents and get it in a week

Good news hit the headlines today as of today the police check for the passport will be done once the travel documentation is issued to you. One might get a passport inside of a week. Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj tweeted that a passport would be issued if a complete application is submitted along with duplicates of the voter ID card, Aadhaar card and PAN card, and a confirmation of no criminal case which includes personal details of familial relations and citizenship. Not at all like the preceding process where police checks would bring about the long delay in getting the passport. The new method will avoid the procedure till after the travel permit is issued, given the submitted reports are accepted.

The MEA now permits candidates to book an appointment whenever it might suit them and any date of decision from the earliest 5 working days for the assignment of the closest Passport Seva Kendra (PSK). In this way, the Passport Seva system secures selection taking into account accessibility and first-in-first-out (FIFO) guideline. Moreover, EPIC and PAN cards might likewise be accepted, if required, through separate databases continuously, before the application is affirmed. In addition, travel papers might likewise be accepted and rejected later, if there should arise an occurrence of unfavorable police reports.

Anil Kumar Sobti, director of the visa division in the Ministry of External Affairs, clarified that the ideation towards this update is to change the procedure without trading off on security. He added that there are a lot of inbuilt shields in the MEA’s visa framework which can spot a fake passports and false information in a split second. In particular, the framework is connected to the Aadhaar database which leads continuous checks of the candidate while they are present at the Passport Seva Kendra.

Prior to this process, police confirmation for travel permits took around 49 days, which was lessened to 42 in 2014, 34 in 2015, and 21 in end of 2015. Passport offices in India and Indian Missions abroad rendered almost 1.2 crore travel permit related services. On December 31, 2015, about 6.33 crore Indians held legitimate Indian Passports.

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