Abu Dhabi: Indian diplomatic missions in the UAE are expected to clear a backlog in applications for passport renewal within a week after facing delays during the past three months due to a shortage of passport booklets in India.

“We have started getting sufficient booklets regularly and the backlog is expected to clear within a few days — maximum a week. The entire process will be back to normal within a maximum two weeks,” T.P. Seetharam, the Indian Ambassador to the UAE, told Gulf News on Sunday.

Now passports issued in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are renewed within eight days; in the worst cases it takes up to two weeks. “There was delay up to three weeks [during the past three months],” the envoy said.

Indian missions in the UAE used to issue between 1,100 and 1,200 passports a day. The number had come down to around 800 to 900 [in the past three months], Seetharam said.

Between 260,000 and 290,000 passports are issued every year in the UAE.

There is only three or four days’ backlog in Abu Dhabi, he said.

Normally passports issued in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are renewed from the same office in five to seven working days. Passports issued from other passport offices are renewed within 40 days. This time-frame will be re-established soon, the envoy said.

As Gulf News reported earlier, the shortage of imported lamination papers at the Indian Security Press (ISP) in Nasik, where passports are printed, had caused the shortage of booklets in India. Since the beginning of this year, the Press in the state of Maharashtra had suspended printing of passports for weeks at a stretch several times.

The shortage of both the 36-page ordinary booklet and 64-page jumbo booklet had affected passport offices in India as well as Indian diplomatic missions across the world.

In the UAE, applicants were issued only the 64-page jumbo passport costing Dh380 due to non-availability of ordinary passports costing Dh285. The ambassador said Indian residents need not worry about passport renewal at all. “The issue has been sorted out. If there is an emergency, Tatkal [emergency] passports are issued within three or four days.”

An increased demand for passports has added pressure on the Indian passport system. India issued around 3 million passports in 2000, which increased to 8.5 million in 2013. The issuance can reach 10 million this year, according to Indian media reports.

Indian expatriates welcomed the news. “I am very happy to hear that there will be no more delays in passport renewal,” Abdul Hakeem,42, an Indian Public Relations Officer with a private company, said. He was concerned about labourers who constitute the majority of Indian expatriates in the UAE. “Many of them go for passport renewal at the last minute owing to financial pressure and the delay could jeopardise their travel plan and visa renewal, etc. Normalisation of the renewal process will help them a lot,” Abdul Hakeem said.