Passport Services

India has resumed passport, visa and other consular services across Australia through VFS Global, ending a 23-day suspension caused by a legal dispute

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on July 20 the Centre's plea against a Delhi High Court verdict setting aside the tender awarded to private firms for outsourcing Consular, Passport and Visa (CPV) services at Indian missions in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Singapore and Canberra. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana was urged by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the high court's decision has made rendering of visa and other services at these places difficult. The CJI agreed to hear the plea on Monday. While setting aside the tender awarded to private firms for outsourcing CPV services, the high court had directed the Centre to issue a fresh Request for Proposals (RFP), inviting fresh bids. The solicitor general said that fresh tenders were awarded following the procedure, but no new entity can start functioning straightaway, and as a result, such services have almost become dysfunctional. In its verdict, the high court said that w

Delhi High Court has set aside the government's tender for outsourcing passport, visa and consular services in Australia, Singapore, the UAE and Kuwait, directing authorities to invite fresh bids

MEA's revised fee structure will increase charges for new passports, renewals, lost passport replacements, PCC and other services

New feature gives citizens secure, instant digital access to the essential document, simplifying background checks and travel preparations

BLS International's Q2 profit jumps 27% to ₹175 crore on strong visa and consular growth; enters hospitality sector with UK hotel acquisition

This comes a few days after the company had received notice from the MEA on being debarred from participation in future tenders of the MEA and Indian missions abroad for a period of two years

Singapore continues to hold the world's most powerful passport, with no visa required in 193 countries; Japan and South Korea share second place with visa-free access to 190 nations

India rolls out chip-enabled biometric e-passports in key cities under Passport Seva 2.0; aims for nationwide rollout by mid-2025 to boost security and ease immigration

Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia on Saturday said a Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) will be opened in each of the country's 543 parliamentary constituencies. Scindia made the announcement while inaugurating a Passport Seva Kendra in Madhya Pradesh's Guna, the parliamentary constituency he represents. The Union minister also said that six new passport centres will be opened in MP this year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to establish a Passport Seva Kendra in each parliamentary constituency with the aim of expanding services. The Department of Posts, in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs, is committed to making this resolution a reality, he said. The minister also informed that 6,000 post offices have been opened across the country. We should try to revive the tradition of writing letters by hand in the country because it expresses the true feelings of the heart, he said. The minister said that several technological changes have taken pl

Website under maintenance for five days, will be inaccessible to people and government authorities

Losing your passport abroad can be a scary and exasperating experience. The most common way of replacing a lost passport can be a cumbersome exercise, however, it works

The efforts are part of the Ministry of External Affairs' upgraded Passport Seva Program 2.0, which is being implemented through service partner TCS

The US, which once topped the ranking nearly a decade ago, slid two places to eighth place

Passport services in the country have improved by "500 per cent" ever since the Modi government came to power in 2014, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said on Friday. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has been continuously working to speed up issuance of passports, the minister said in Lok Sabha during Question Hour. He also said that as many as 32 million Indians or Indian origin people live abroad and the Ministry of External Affairs has been rendering services to all of them. "Passport services have improved very much in the last eight years, I would say 500 per cent. The number of offices which process passport applications was 110 before 2014 and the number now stands at above 550," Muraleedharan said. He said the MEA is working continuously to speed up passport issuance and meet high or seasonal demand for passports by taking various steps including organising special drives or melas on weekends. Since June, a total of 234 passport melas hav

To change the photo in the passport, you have to apply for a re-issue of the passport

In the next phase of program, TCS will refresh existing facilities and systems, and develop new solutions to enable issuance of e-passports using technologies such as biometrics, data analytics, etc

Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan launched a new scheme by which an applicant can leverage the DigiLocker platform while applying for passport-related services

The Indian Embassy has decided to remove all restrictions on passport renewal applications to be submitted at BLS International Centres with effect from July 15

In collaboration with the Department of Posts, we embarked on really a very transformational initiative, which has allowed us in the last three years to open 424 POPSKs, he said