• Home

Renewal of Indian passport for those below 15 made easy

DUBAI - Indian children below the age of 15 will no longer be required to go to the Indian consulate to get their passports renewed.

According to a new rule, being implemented by the Indian Consulate General in Dubai, children can now get their parents to renew their passports for them.

Parents can come to the consulate with a copy of their own passport and a certificate from the school authorities establishing the age and residence status of the child and the authorities will renew the passport within five working days of the application.

This will happen if the previous booklet has been issued in any Dubai. However, if it has been issued in another country, then the passport will be renewed in 40 days.

According to Manab Hansda, Indian Consul (Passports), prior to the implementation of this rule, children were required to be personally present at the time of the application for the renewal of their passports.

The implementation of the new rule, he said, would not only add to the convenience of the parents but also reduce the serpentine queues which are a regular feature at the Indian consulate in Bur Dubai.

The Indian consulate has also decided to charge a sum of Dh500 if it is discovered that a passport has been damaged or details changed in any way.

"Now all passport details are being put on the web site and if we have reasons to believe that a person has tried to tamper with his passport then a fine of Dh500 will be imposed," Mr Hansda explained.

Talking about forged passports, he said that there has been very few incidents where the consulate have been asked by the local authorities to identify forged passports.

But the consulate is in the possession of a machine which examines by means of ultra-violet rays the ingenuity of a passport.

"Even the forged passports are found to be genuine in the sense that they have the same paper and the booklet but sometimes the names are changed. Now with all details of a passport being posted on the web site, it is easy to check when a passport has been issued and under what name," Mr. Hansda explained.

So if we see that a passport has been tampered with, we can immediately identify it and take action, he added.

He also referred to the booklet issued by the Indian Community Welfare Committee which contains all the details about passport renewal and other consular services.

The booklet also includes all the do's and don'ts in the United Arab Emirates for those seeking employment in the country.

• UAE