Abu Dhabi: Up to 600,000 Bangladeshis with hand-written passports must apply for the machine-readable version within the next 24 months, their top diplomat in the UAE told Gulf News.
Mohammad Imran, Bangladeshi Ambassador to the UAE, urged his fellow Bangladeshis to apply for machine-readable passport (MRP) as soon as possible.
“Do not wait for the 2015 deadline,” he said, referring to November 24, 2015 deadline for the 191 member-states of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to stop the circulation of non-machine readable passports.
An estimated 800,000 Bangladeshis live and work in the UAE.
More than 200,000 Bangladeshis had already obtained MRPs, and hundreds are applying it on a daily basis, a top Bangladeshi diplomat told Gulf News.
Out of the 1,200 citizens who visit the Bangladeshi embassy in Abu Dhabi daily, some 400 people submit applications, while another 400 give their fingerprints and the rest come to collect their MRPs, he said.
The embassy has not engaged any courier company for the delivery of passports as most of the Bangladeshis are ordinary labourers who cannot afford the courier charges, Imran said.
A Bangladeshi MRP costs Dh125 for labourers and Dh405 for people doing other jobs. Considering the rush of MRP applicants, the embassy plans to outsource the passport application services to a private agency, he said.
But this shift may take time, said Imran.
“We have already engaged typing centres and a bank to ease the process,” he said.
The envoy said the UAE has recently stopped issuing new visas to Bangladeshis holding handwritten passports, although renewal of existing visa is permitted.
The newcomers to the UAE must hold an MRP, he said.
From September 2010, Gulf News reported that UAE had stopped issuing new visas to Pakistanis holding hand-written passports.
It affects Pakistanis who travel to the UAE and Pakistani expatriates already in the country who apply for a new visa after cancelling their existing visas to change jobs or sponsors. Those who apply for a new visa are required to present an MRP. This, however, does not affect the renewal of residence visas by Pakistanis in the UAE who already hold handwritten passports.
Pakistanis in the UAE can renew their residence visa until the expiry of their handwritten passports. But they have to get a MRP while they are renewing the manual passport.
