Online booking of appointment has been made mandatory by the government in case of all categories of persons applying for passports. All applications for issue of passports will be accepted at the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) and Post-Office PSK (POPSK) only with appointment booked online. All applicants, including senior citizens, minors and other categories, who were earlier allowed on ‘walk-in’ basis, without the need for prior appointment, will now have to book their appointment online before visiting the PSK or POPSK as no manual tokens would be issued at the PSK, according to Passport Officer NLP Choudary. The whole process of passport issuance has been simplified and modernised to make the system people-friendly. The applicants are, however, cautioned that they have to submit clear and original documents.
The submission of false information/fake documents, suppression of material information is an offence under the Passport Act and such acts are punishable under the provisions of the Passport Act, 1967.
Applicants have also been cautioned that once a passport has been obtained, it would be difficult to change entries in the passport subsequently. Hence, applicants have been asked to exercise caution while submitting information or documents along with passport application form.
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On the complaints of delay in the processing of applications submitted at the POPSKs, Mr. Choudary noted that the POPSKs were yet to get streamlined and were working on an offline mode and hence, the time taken for processing of applications submitted at POPSKs would take a little more time than those submitted at the PSK s.
The fee for a normal passport is ₹1,500 and ₹1,000 for minors. In the case of senior citizens (above 60 years) it is ₹900 and for minors (below 8 years) for fresh applications only.
A 24-hour helpline is available on 1800-258-1800 for general enquiry, application status, police verification status and tracking of application status.
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The tele-enquiry during office hours is 0891-2745746. Public can log their grievance/feedback at rpo.vizag@mea.gov.in or www.passportindia . gov.in>information/Feedback/ grievance>Feedback.