Major update for citizens seeking passport

KARACHI: The federal government raised fast-track passport fees as citizens would have to pay an additional Rs2,500 to obtain the essential travel document for five years, ARY News reported.

Directorate General Immigration and Passports issued a notification, according to which the new fee of the fast-track passport ranges from Rs12,500 to Rs32,000

As per the revised rates, the fee for a 36-page passport on a fast-track basis for five years has been raised by Rs 2,500 to Rs 12,500. For a 10-year validity 36-page passport, the citizens would have to pay Rs 23,000.

The fee for a 10-year machine-readable passport with 36 pages is fixed at Rs 16,200 while a 10-year machine-readable passport with 72 pages: fee is Rs 25,200.

Similarly, a 10-year machine-readable passport with 100 pages could be obtained for Rs 32,000.

It is pertinent to mention here that on March 7, Directorate General Immigration and Passports announced a significant rise in the passport fee as citizens would have to pay an additional 50 percent for ordinary and urgent passport.

36-page passport

According to the notification, the fee for an ordinary 36-page passport for five years has hiked from Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,500, while the urgent processing fee has climbed from Rs5,000 to Rs 7,500.

For a 10-year validity 36-page passport, the citizens would have to pay Rs 6,700 instead of Rs 4500. The urgent fee for a 36-page passport having a validity of 10 years climbed to Rs 11,200.

72-page passport

The people would be paying Rs 8,200 for a 72-page ordinary passport valid for 5 years, and Rs 13,500 for urgent processing. For 10-year, Rs 12,400 and Rs 20,200 have been fixed for normal and urgent processing respectively.

100-page passport

For a 100-page passport valid for five years, the new fee has risen to Rs9000 for standard processing and Rs18,000 for urgent processing. For a 10-year validity passport of 100 pages, Rs 13,500 has been fixed for urgent processing and Rs 27,000 for urgent processing.