March 6, 2025 – The Indian government has made some significant changes to Passport Rules of 1980, according to a recent official notification. This will impact those who are planning on applying for a new passport. The changes involve stricter documentation requirements and procedural alterations and will take effect once published in the official Gazette.

The changes, aimed to make passport application process more efficient and uniform, are as follows:

Proof of Date of Birth

According to the new rule, those born on or after October 1, 2023, will have to provide birth certificates as sole proof of date of birth. The birth certificate has to be issued by the Municipal Corporation, Registrar of Births and Deaths or any authority designated under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. This will be the only acceptable valid proof of birth. The idea behind this move is to help prevent discrepancies in age verification.

For those born before October 1, 2023, the proof of date of birth requirement will remain as earlier. Apart from the birth certificate, they also have options to provide the following as proof of date of birth:

• Transfer or school leaving certificate
• PAN card
• Service record/pay pension order (for government employees only)
• Driving license
• Election ID card
• LIC policy bond
• Aadhaar Card/E-Aadhaar

Residential Address

Henceforth, the residential address of the applicant will not be printed on the last page of the passport but will instead be embedded digitally. Under the new rule, there will be a barcode on the passport which the immigration official can scan to read the information. This step is taken to protect the identity of the passport holder and prevent misuse of personal details.

Colour Coding

As per the new rules, passports will have different colours for different citizens to make it easier for identification of passport categories. For example, while ordinary citizens will have blue passports, government officials will get white passports and diplomats will have red ones.

Parents’ Name

Going forward, passports will not carry names of parents of the applicants, normally printed on the last page of the passport. This change will get rid of unnecessary hassle involving children of single parents or estranged families.

Increase in POPSKs

In order to facilitate speedy service across the nation, the government plans to increase the number of Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) in the country. Currently, there are 442 centres. Over the course of the next five years, the kendras will be increased to 600, as per the plan.

With Media Inputs