Electronic-Passports will be rolled out by the end of this year or early next year. Secretary External Affairs, Dr. Ausaf Sayeed informed the media in Hyderabad. He said an e-chip and a few more features will be added to the passport book which will provide security upgradation of the Indian passport and enable machine reading.
A team of officials led by the secretary is visiting Hyderabad as part of Videsh Sampark Outreach program and held a series of meetings with Telangana government.
Stating that the interests of diaspora are important, the secretary said several steps are being taken to facilitate Indian citizens who are migrating to work in other countries and providing legal support.
He said 87 billion dollars have been remitted to India by diaspora last year, compared to the 83 billion dollars in the previous year. Dr. Sayeed also said efforts are being made to make immigration process easy through legal processes and increase training levels of those migrants. He said all agents operating illegally will be eliminated.
dr Sayeed said maximum number of Immigration clearances are being given in Telangana. Referring to immigration processes, he said 15 more countries have been identified for singing Migration and Mobility Agreements while the agreement with 12 countries is currently in force.
He further said a conference with recruiting agents will be held tomorrow as part of MEA efforts legal protection of migrants.
Chief Passport Officer T Armstrong Changsan informed that Hyderabad passport office issued 4.28 lakh passports and extended over 16 thousand other services this year. Hyderabad Regional Passport Officer Balaiah informed that regional conference of RPOs of Telugu states has also been held.
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