Foreign ministry urges public to make passports

Suman Joshi, Kathmandu

Feb 23

 

The foreign ministry has urged everyone planning to visit a foreign country in near future to take a passport before March 31.

 

The foreign ministry urged the public to take the passports as the hand-written passports being issued now cannot be issued after April 1 and will not be valid even if issued as per the provision of UN agency International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

 

The public is advised to make the passports, as it is still unclear how long the foreign ministry will take before getting the Machine-Readable Passports.

 

Hand-written passports issued before March 31 will be valid till 2015, after which they should be replace by MRPs. The validity of passports by Nepal government is 10 years. The foreign ministry has said, it will waive the passport fees on pro rata basis at the time of replacing it with MRPs.

 

Nepal government currently has a stock of some half million passport books. However, they will be rendered useless after March 31.

 

There is one more reason to make the passports before March 31. The hand-written passports can be acquired from District Administration Office, while MRPs will not be issued from the districts.

 

The foreign ministry has also advised public whose validity of the passport is ending to renew them before March 31.