New Delhi: Delay in passport issuance and renewal occur at at several levels – from the newly set up passport seva kendra to the police station.

In order to make speed up the process , the ministry of external affairs has issued fresh guidelines to ensure that the passport is delivered in the shortest period. So far the convention was that if an application for renewal of passport is submitted, it was treated as a fresh application and there was police verification of residential address and all the documents.

Now, it has been made clear that if the earlier police report is clear and the photograph of the applicant is attached in the original police report, there would be no need for fresh police verification.

Further Minors, government servants and senior citizens can now go without verification,” Muktesh Pardeshi, chief passport officer in MEA, said. He further said that , “We have directed that there should be three categories for police verification in the passport issuance process.

First, there is a pre-police verification, which is mandatory for first-time passports. Second, the post-police verification, where the verification can be done after the passport is issued.” “However, the Passport officer has the discretion to order a verification if he deems it necessary” he added.