Under a deadline set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), as of November 25, 2015, all passports are required to meet machine-readable standards. Foreign governments are not required to accept passports that do not meet these standards, once the deadline is reached. This includes Indian passports issued with validity periods of twenty years, as these passports are not considered machine-readable.
Rules Apply to Nearly All Countries
Technically, these passport rules only apply to nations that are members of the ICAO, which is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN). But, nearly every country in the world is a member state of the ICAO. Therefore, travelers generally should assume that obtaining a machine-readable passport before the November 25, 2015 deadline is a must. After this date, an international traveler with a passport that is not compliant with machine-readable requirements could be denied entry or the issuance of a visa from any member state of the ICAO.
Indian 20-Year and Handwritten Passports Should be Replaced
The government of India cautions that certain older Indian passports, including those issued with twenty-year validity periods and "handwritten passports with pasted photos," are not considered machine-readable. In fact, the Indian embassy has been advising its citizens of the need to apply for an updated, ten-year passport as far back as 2004. India began issuing machine-readable passports in 2001, and all new Indian passports comply with the machine-readable requirements. Any Indian citizen who has one of the older, noncompliant passports, should obtain a new passport before the ICAO deadline.
Conclusion
Taking steps now to ensure one's passport is machine-readable, and, if it is not, applying for a new, compliant passport, can help a traveler avoid problems in the future. Those with questions about whether a particular passport meets the machine-readable requirements should contact the responsible government agency in the country that issued the passport.
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