The online service started by the Department of Passport (DoP) has enabled passport applicants to find out if their travel documents are ready for collection. Just by visiting the DoP’s website one can now see if his or her passport has been dispatched to the district administration or the embassy.

When the service was introduced on August 20, the DoP had hoped that it would inform the clients when to go collect their passports and save them from the hassles of visiting their passport collection centres from time to time, enquiring if their documents have arrived yet. The online service did serve its first purpose of informing the clients, but it didn’t keep the clients from revisiting the passport centres. Even after the DoP has dispatched the passports for distribution, many clients have been compelled to frequent their local district administration offices and concerned embassies for days to collect their passports.

More crowds are building outside the passport distribution centres at district administration offices and embassies because the people learn from the DoP’s website that their passports are ready for collection and if there is a delay in distribution, they continue to visit the centre the next day and the next. Because of the rush caused by the online passport tracking system, some district administration offices and Nepali missions have asked the DoP to shut down the service.

Multiple sources at DoP told the Post that Nepali missions, including in Japan and United Kingdom, and some district administration offices have been putting pressure on DoP to stop the service. They have been telling us that since the time DoP started putting up the information online, applicants have started to swarm their offices to collect their passports, a DoP official said.  He, however, assured that the DoP will not shut down its online service, noting that the concerned authorities should mobilise more manpower if they are unable to distribute the passports to the service seekers on time. “We introduced the online service because our aim is to provide efficient, prompt service to the service seekers at a minimum cost. If any of the concerned offices cannot distribute the passports on time then it is their problem,” he said.

Officials from Nepali missions and distinct administration offices has said that they are already overloaded with other tasks, and passport distribution has become an extra burden for them to deal with. Meanwhile, the DoP is considering extending its notification service by launching SMS update on passport status.

“Once we dispatch the passports, we will send SMS to the applicants, so that they can claim their passports from the concerned offices. Similarly, if the passport application form of any applicant fails to meet the standard, we will inform the respective applicants to reapply through SMS,” the DoP official said. He added that the DoP is further planning to introduce individual log-in system where service seekers could have access to their passport details more accurately.

Published on: 8 November 2014 | The Kathmandu Post