ISLAMABAD – The Department of Immigration and Passport has so far received around 146,627 requests from Overseas Pakistanis (OPs) to get their passports renewed through Online Portal.
The Online Renewal of Machine Readable Passport was launched in October 2016 and currently, this service is available for renewal of passports of Pakistanis expatriate living abroad.
The Department has adopted measures to facilitate the citizens and under its future plans would launch International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) compliant e-passport (chip-based) Machine Readable Passport for swift immigration at airports and convenience of travelers.
The other initiatives would include the creation of 372 posts in difference cadres, restructuring of the department through the Management Services Wing, the introduction of premium service at eight Regional Passport Offices after office hours (4:00 pm to 07:00 pm) on the realization of Rs.2000 each applicant, reviewing of Black List policy by incorporating/addition Black List rules in Passport Rules, 1974 and converting from the desktop printing of passport to bulk printing solution.
The statistics (June 2013 to June 2018) issued by the Department have shown that around Rs97.989 billion was contributed during last five years to national kitty through the issuance of Machine Readable Passports and Visas.
The revenues earned through fees under different heads have reached almost Rs21 billion in 2017-18 from Rs17.717 billion in 2013-14.
Around Rs18.356 billion was collected in the year 2014-15, Rs20.846 billion in 2016-17 and Rs20.070 during 2015-16.
During the period, the Department issued around 20.469 million Machine Readable Passport, 273,317 Machine Readable Visas, 417 Pakistan Citizenship Certificates and 16,954 Renunciation of Pakistan Citizenship Certificates.
The steps taken to facilitate applicants during last five years included that all branches of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) have been authorized to collect passport fee in 15 major cities while payment of passport fee through branch-less banking was also introduced.
The Department reduced the time period for delivery of urgent passport from earlier 5 days to 4 days and for ordinary passports from 12 days to 10 days.
Passport processing time at Regional Passport Offices has been decreased from over 150 minutes to around 75 minutes.
Regarding the total number of passport offices, the data further showed that 11 Executive Passport Offices were established in major cities of the country while the number of Regional Passport Offices has now reached 160.
The Deployment also ensured MPR facility in 91 foreign missions to facilitate overseas Pakistanis.
Another initiative was the launch of home delivery service for passport applicants across the country to facilitate the public in 15 major cities while home delivery of passport to Pakistanis expatriate living abroad was also launched during the period.
Moreover, IVR based helpline (9988) was launched in six languages to facilitate the applicants while
Toll-Free No.051-111-344-777 has been launched to provide updated information to applicants and receive their complaints.
Similarly, SMS-based Passport Delivery Notification Services have been launched to intimate passport applicant about printing/collection of the passport from concerned passport office.
