Passports for students, faculty made easier

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 23

If you are a student and have plans to go abroad in the near future, here is your golden chance to get a passport in a simpler and easier manner. Besides students, faculty and staff members of educational institutions will also be covered to make them “globally ready” under the special “Student Connect” initiative of the Union Ministry of External Affairs.

Sharing the initiative of the ministry here today, Regional Passport Officer (RPO), Chandigarh, Rakesh Agrawal said, “As part of our initiative ‘Student Connect’, we aim to prepare ‘globally ready students’ by helping them avail of the passport services in a never-before easier and simpler manner.”

The passport office is contacting big universities and colleges and offering them all help to enable their students to get passports made. For this, special e-mails have been sent to major institutes.

“In the present times, where the world is a global village, many students aspire to travel to different parts of the world for student exchange programmes, global competitions and a wide variety of learning and career opportunities. Passport is an essential travel document. It is also an important and widely acceptable identity and address proof document,” Agrawal said.

He said, “If there are sufficient number of students from an institute interested in applying for the passport, we will be willing to conduct a special passport camp at the institute or hold special melas at the nearest passport sewa kendras (PSKs). If required, we will also facilitate students by allotting special time slots for walk-in processing of application without appointment at the PSKs. As a special case, this facility will also be available to the faculty and staff members of the institute.”

With the admission season round the corner for universities outside India, the Ministry of External Affairs is anticipating an increased number of passport applications in the current quarter, as the passport is a mandatory document for students planning to study abroad. “This is just the right time for you to apply and get your passport,” the RPO urged the students.

The facility

If a student is staying in Bhiwani (which falls under the jurisdiction of the RPO, Chandigarh) and his parents are staying in Hisar, which also falls under the jurisdiction of the RPO, Chandigarh, then the student can apply at any PSK under the RPO, Chandigarh. The student must indicate the hostel address/place where he is staying in Bhiwani as the present address and his parent’s address as the permanent address.

And in case a student is studying in Bengaluru but has a parental address of Hisar, he may either apply at any of the PSKs under the RPO, Bengaluru, or under the RPO, Chandigarh. For proof of residence of hostel/place of stay, he should provide a bona fide letter from an authorised signatory of the college.