All Indian nationals in Kuwait holding hand written passports are advised once again to apply for urgent re-issuance of new passports, in lieu of handwritten passports, under the following circumstances:-

(a) The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) had set a deadline of 24 November 2015 for globally phasing out of all non-Machine Readable Passports. From 25 November 2015 onwards, foreign Governments may deny Visa or entry to any person travelling on a non-Machine Readable Passport.

(b) The Government of India has been issuing Machine Readable Passports since 2001. The Passports, however, issued before 2001 and particularly those issued during mid 1990s with a validity of 20 years will fall in the category of non-MRPs. All handwritten passports with pasted photographs are also considered non-MRPs.

(c) Indians living in Kuwait holding handwritten passports as explained in Para (b) above, are advised to apply urgently for re-issue of their passports well before the deadline in order to avoid any inconvenience in obtaining valid visa for international travel.

(d) For more details related to passport services, visit the website – http://www.indembkwt.org/Pages/Passport.aspx - or call Shri. Tribhuvan Kumar, Assistant Consular Officer at Tel. No. 22530600, Extn-261 or Shri. K.K. Pahel, First Secretary (Consular) on Mob: 97229948.