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The move follows the submission of the proposal summary to the Chief Advisor's Office
Published : 18 Feb 2025, 01:31 AM
The interim government is set to lift the requirement for police verification when Bangladesh citizens apply for a passport, replacing it with the verification of national identity card, or NID, information.
On Monday, Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus approved the proposal summary submitted by the home ministry, according to his Deputy Press Secretary Apurba Jahangir.
Once the home ministry issues a notification, police verification will no longer be required for passport applications.
After the interim prime minister’s announcement at the Deputy Commissioner’s Conference, the home ministry's Security Services Division took steps on Monday to issue passports based on NID information.
The proposal summary was then forwarded to the Chief Advisor's Office, where it received approval from Yunus, his press wing said in a statement.
Officials from the home ministry said it will now issue a notification on this matter.
At the Deputy Commissioner’s Conference on Sunday, Yunu said: "The birth certificate given to me was not subject to any police verification. The NID issued to me also did not require waiting for police verification; it was granted as a citizen.
“A passport is also an identity document for a citizen of this country, and there is no need for police verification here."
“Removing police verification has been part of our plans for a long time,” Home Advisor Jahangir Alam Chowdhury told journalists at the Bangladesh Coast Guard’s founding anniversary ceremony on Monday morning.
“It frees the public from unnecessary hassle. Police verification will no longer be needed for those who have a national identity card.”
The issue of obtaining passports without police verification has been a topic of discussion since the interim administration took power.
The day after the chief advisor’s statement, the home ministry sent a one-and-a-half-page proposal summary for his review and approval.
STEPS TO SIMPLIFY PASSPORT ISSUANCE
• To streamline passport services, passports could be issued based on NID information.
• For minors, passports can be issued based on birth registration certificates instead of NID cards. If the application information matches with the database, police verification will not be required.
• For Bangladeshis living abroad and minors applying for new passports, passports should be issued based on online verified birth registration certificate information without requiring police verification.
• If basic information such as name, parent's name, date of birth, or birthplace changes during passport re-issuance, passports can be issued based on NID card information.
• If the application details are verified against the national identity card or birth registration database, it will be considered that the necessary investigation has been completed under Section 5(2) of the Bangladesh Passport Order, 1973.
The summary highlights that passport services are an essential citizen service, with over one crore Bangladeshis working abroad.
On average, 30,000 Bangladeshis go abroad for work every month. In addition, citizens travel abroad for higher education, permanent residence, and other purposes.
Currently, passport offices at home and abroad receive an average of 28,000 to 30,000 applications daily and print 25,000 to 28,000 passports.
The summary also explains that under the current e-passport system, applicants can apply online, pay the fees, and then attend the passport office on a designated day for biometric data submission and passport collection.
After submission, the application is automatically sent to the relevant police branch for verification.
Based on a positive police report, the passport is issued.
In the current process, a regular passport is issued within 12 working days, while express delivery takes three working days.
It also added that applicants often face difficulties due to delayed police verification or unnecessary document checks during the verification process.
