All passport users, both at home and abroad, have been requested to swap their handwritten passports with the new machine readable ones by November 24.
The deadline was fixed at an inter-ministerial meeting held at the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry with Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon in the chair.Principal Secretary to Prime Minister’s Office M Abul Kalam Azad and Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary Khorshed Alam Chowdhury attended the meeting.
The time for the existing handwritten passports will expire on November 24 according to the directives of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and the government has also made it mandatory for the users to have machine readable passports after the time, said a handout.
At the meeting, it was decided that the passport holders will not be able to travel abroad without using the machine readable passports after November 24, the release added.- UNB
