No handwritten passports after Nov 24

Pune: Indian citizens with handwritten passports will have to get them replaced with machine-readable ones. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has set a deadline of November 24 for the global phase-out of all non-Machine Readable Passports (MRPs). Thereafter, foreign governments may deny a visa or entry to a person travelling on a non-Machine Readable Passport, a circular from the ministry of external affairs said. The government has been issuing MRPs since 2001. Those issued before 2001 and particularly those issued during the mid-1990s with a validity of 20 years fall into the non-MRPs.