Every year, thousands of Bangladeshis embark on foreign trips for various purposes. From education and health to recreational needs, the number of Bangladeshis opting for foreign travel is increasing exponentially. With a limited validity on a passport, it becomes necessary to get the passport renewed at some point. Considering the bureaucratic hassle involved, here’s a comprehensive guide on how to renew Bangladeshi MRP and Handwritten passports.
Types of Passports in Bangladesh
There are mainly three types of passports in Bangladesh, handwritten, machine-readable, and e-passport. The last handwritten passport was issued in 2010 and considering each passport has a maximum validity of 10 years, all handwritten passports are obsolete at this point.
Currently, passports are available either as MRP or e-passports. E-passports have been made available on a rollout basis starting in 2020. As of 2022, all the regional passport offices of Bangladesh are now offering the e-passport service. As a result, anyone holding a handwritten or MRP passport can easily apply for reissuing their passport as e-passports in the following way.
Read More: How to Get E-Passport in Bangladesh: Things you need to know
How to Apply Online for Reissuing MRP/Hand Written as E-passports
The process of applying for e-passports is a hybrid one. You need to apply for the passport online and visit the regional passport office (in accordance with your present address) for biometric verification. Follow the steps below.
Registering on the Official Passport Site
The first step is to open an account on the official e-passport website. Here you will have to select whether you are currently in Bangladesh or not.
Bangladesh Passport Renewal Process
After that, you will need to select the district and nearest police station of your present address. Based on the information, a regional passport office would be suggested to you.
Registering e-mail
After confirming your regional passport office, you will need to fill up your basic information, including your mobile number and e-mail.
A verification e-mail will be sent to your chosen mail address and from there you can move into the next step.
Read More: E-Passport for Children in Bangladesh: Application process, necessary documents
Bangladesh Passport Renewal Process
Filling Out the Information
After registering your e-mail, you will need to fill out your personal information. This is a long process, and the information is divided into several categories.
You must fill up each of them correctly as any anomaly in the information may lead to application rejection. For ease of understanding, each of the categories is discussed below.
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Personal Information
This section specifically pertains to information relating to you. here you will have to provide information such as your name, BRC, or NID number. Note that you will have to provide the exact information (either BRC or NID) that was used to generate the expired passport.
Here you will also need to outline your profession, personal details, and citizenship information.
Bangladesh Passport Renewal Process
Address
This section is divided between permanent and present addresses. The permanent address is in detail divided into the village, district, thana, and other denominations. The post office number gets selected automatically based on the provided information.
If your present and permanent address are the same, you can simply check the box marked as “permanent and present address same”. If not, you will have to individually input the present address as well.
ID Information
The next step would be your identity information. First, you need to select whether you have any previous MRP/handwritten passport or not. Since this is a case for renewing, you will have to select the “I have an existing MRP” option.
After you select the option, you will need to select the reason for the passport request. In this case, it would be either “expired” or “conversion to e-passport”. After that, you will need to input the details of your existing/expired passport. You will also need to input your NID/BRC number here.
Parental Information
On the next page, you will be asked to fill out parental information. Here you will need to input the name of your father and mother. Their profession and NID/BRC number will also have to be included.
In case of the absence of parents, you can input the details of a legal guardian in a separate box in the same way.
Source: United News of Bangladesh