Indian passport rule change: Does it affect Indian expats in UAE?

Abu Dhabi: The Indian government has revised the passport application process, mandating birth certificates as the only acceptable proof of date of birth for individuals born on or after October 1, 2023.

As reported by Gulf News on Monday, the move aims to standardise documentation and ensure uniformity in age verification.

Does this affect Indian passport applicants here in the UAE? We posed this question to the Indian missions here and the Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate in Dubai have explained the related procedures to be followed in the UAE.

Spokespersons of the missions clarified that the missions here accept applications for new passports only for Indian children born in the UAE. Passport renewal is offered to Indian expats who are UAE residents, not visitors.

If Indians, who are residents or visitors, do not have a valid passport, the missions issue them a temporary travel document called Emergency Certificate, commonly known as out-pass, which is essentially a white-colour passport with validity for one-time travel back home.

Hence, the latest change in passport application rule is applicable to the new passport applications for Indian children born here, the missions explained.

The missions also revealed that they registered the births of around 19,300 Indian children born in the UAE last year. As many as 13,900 births were registered by the Consulate which oversees Dubai and Northern Emirates while the Embassy registered around 5,400 births in Abu Dhabi.

Indian parents of babies born in the UAE are already required to submit the birth certificates of the children as the proof of date of birth when they apply for a newborn’s passport at any centre of the outsourced service provider, BLS International, the missions clarified.

“Birth certificate of a child born in the UAE has to be attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in the UAE,” according to the mandatory requirement here.

That means, the parents are required to get the original birth certificate from the relevant health authorities in the UAE, based on the birth notification from the hospital where the child was born, and get it attested by the MOFA.

Along with other required documents such as the passport copies of both the parents and their marriage certificate, the attested birth certificate has to be then produced at the BLS Centre for registering the child’s birth with the Indian missions. Additional documents required in exceptional cases are explained on the website of BLS.

A spokesperson of the Embassy clarified that the birth of a child can be registered normally within one year of birth and passport can be applied along with birth registration. “However, birth can be registered up to 18 years of the birth of a child, provided the attested birth certificate and other mandatory documents are submitted,” he added.

“Online registration is a mandatory process and the file number is mandatory to be attached along with the application when submitting to BLS,” according to the application requirements.

And this application is separate from the application of the child’s passport.

The missions also clarified that Indian citizenship is guaranteed to a child born to Indian parents overseas only when the birth is registered with the respective Indian mission.

“We generally do not have any issue with respect to this since almost all children are born in hospitals and their births are immediately registered with the local authorities first and with us next when the parents come for the new passport for the child,” said a spokesperson of the Indian Consulate.

He said birth registration is done through the portal of the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs and the missions are the issuing authority in the UAE.

Meanwhile, passport offices in India continue to accept other valid documents as proof of date of birth in the case of applicants born before October 1, 2023 as many had not secured birth certificates registered with the government earlier.