The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) is allowing holders of valid conventional passports to get machine readable passports (MRP) as replacements if they wish, according to Foreign Secretary Dr Madan Kumar Bhattarai. [break]
But such passport holders should be ready to pay the MRP charge of Rs 5,000 besides surrendering the old passport to the ministry.
What happens if your old passport contains a valid visa and you want to go for an MRP?
In that case, the ministry is allowing possession of both the conventional passport and the MRP. But it will put in a notice about the status of the old passport.
Alternatively, old passport holders can also get their valid visas transferred to the MRP, at the embassies concerned.
According to Secretary Bhattarai, conventional passports or non-MRP issued before December 31, 2010 will be valid till November 24, 2015. Nepal is supposed to adopt e-passports -- also known as third generation MRP --after that date.
But traveling with a non-MRP is likely to invite hassles.
Myrepublica.com has come across instances of people facing problems due to their conventional passports.
Dr Shankar Kumar Shrestha, a judge-turned-lawyer, said his conventional passport landed him in trouble while traveling to the US in June.
At Washington´s Dulles International Airport, Shrestha had to wait for an hour to board his plane as the system there handled only MRP.
“There were no officials to check my passport immediately. I had to look for an hour for someone to check my passport. I had to produce other documents to support the passport,” Shrestha said, recalling his bitter experience.
Non-MRP have also caused problems while shopping abroad. Nepal´s ambassador to the UK, Dr Suresh Chandra Chalise, could not buy a Blackberry cell phone in London last March because he did not have an MRP.
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