Passports may not serve as address proof

Overseas travel insurance policy – Apart from emergency medical care costs, this covers loss of passport, documents and baggage. It also covers fraudulent charges made on your credit/debit card. (Representative Image)

Passports may no longer serve as a valid proof of address as the External Affairs Ministry has decided not to print the last page of the travel document with the address of the holder.

The last page of the passport includes the father or legal guardian's name, the names of the holder’s mother, spouse and their address.

"As the last page of the passport would not be printed now, the passport holders with ECR (Emigration Check Required) status would be issued a passport with orange passport jacket and those with non-ECR status would continue to get a blue passport," an MEA statement read.

The recommendations of a three-member panel, comprising officials from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Women and Child Development, were accepted and it was decided that the last page of the passport and other travel documents issued under the Passports Act, 1967 and Passport Rules, 1980 "would no longer be printed", it said.

The panel examined various issues "pertaining to passport applications including examination of where mother/child had insisted that the name of the father should not be mentioned in the passport and also relating to passport issues to children with single parent and to adopted children", it added.

The Indian Security Press (ISP), Nasik, would be designing the new passport booklets in due course.

"Till such time the new passport booklets are designed, manufactured and made available to the ministry by ISP, Nashik, the passports and other travel documents would continue to be printed with the last page," the MEA said.

The existing passports would continue to remain valid till the date of expiry printed in the passport booklet, it added.