The e-passport is expected to be rolled out across the country by mid-2025. It was launched as a pilot project on April 1, 2024. The government has come up with this to keep the data of passport holders safe and avoid duplication. Here we are telling important things about India’s chip-based e-passport… What is an e-passport? An e-passport is a combined paper and electronic passport. It uses a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip and an antenna as an inlay in the passport that contains personal and biometric information of the passport holder. How to identify an e-passport? An e-passport can be identified by looking at a small additional gold color symbol printed at the bottom of the front cover of the passport. What are the benefits of having an e-passport? Is it mandatory for existing passport holders to get an e-passport? No. All passports issued by the Government of India will remain valid till their expiry date. Citizens applying in cities where e-passport facility has been made available will get e-passport. This facility is going to start soon in other cities as well. In which cities is the e-passport facility available now? Regional passport offices located in Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Jammu, Goa, Shimla, Raipur, Amritsar, Jaipur, Chennai, Hyderabad, Surat and Ranchi are currently issuing e-passports to citizens. The process of issuing e-passports in Tamil Nadu started on March 3, 2025. As of March 22, 2025, a total of 20,729 e-passports had been issued in the state. How can you get an e-passport? If you want to get a passport, then you can apply by visiting the official website of Passport Seva https://portal2.passportindia.gov.in. It is easy to apply on this website. Apart from this, you can apply directly to get a passport by visiting your nearest passport service center. Where is the data of e-passport stored? The Government of India stores e-passport data in a secure, centralized database managed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The electronic chip of the e-passport contains biometric data (fingerprints, facial photograph and iris scan) and personal information (name, date of birth, etc.) of the passport holder. It is secured with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) encryption to prevent unauthorized access or tampering. How many countries in the world have e-passport facility? According to data from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), as of December 2024, 174 countries and regions had the facility to issue e-passports.
