One-tenth of Indian passport-holders now have e-passports. What’s so special about these?

These can be read without contact by machines at immigration counters, enabling faster and reliable identity verification, say MEA officials.

The chip, which has a read-only memory, works only when it is near the machine and can’t be used to track a user’s whereabouts.

A visible differentiator in an e-passport is a gold-coloured electronic passport symbol printed below the title on the front cover, in line with global standards. Other security features include interlocking micro-letters and relief tints.

MEA officials said the revamped system is aimed at tackling passport fraud, preventing cases of individuals holding multiple passports. The system verifies an applicant’s biometric data against a central server, immediately flagging any existing passport in the applicant’s name.

Over a 100 countries have facilities at their immigration to process immigration for these passports. 

In 2007, the US began issuing chip-embedded passports and became one of the earliest major adopters. France, Japan, Brazil, Germany, Australia and, more recently, Mexico also followed suit.

How many people have e-passports in India?

As per the latest data provided by the MEA, over 93 lakh e-passports have been issued in India between May 1, 2025 (when the project was launched) and January 18, 2026. Besides passport seva kendras and regional passport offices in the country, most foreign missions have also been equipped to issue e-passports, starting October last year. Till January 18, 2026, over three lakh e-passports were issued by Missions abroad, taking the total number of e-passports issued so far to around one crore. 

According to MEA data, around 45,000 e-passports are being issued in India everyday, while 8,000 are being issued by Missions abroad each day.

The pilot launch of the upgraded Passport Programme Version 2.0 (PSP V2.0) alongwith e-passport was rolled out on April 1, 2024, at RPO Bhubaneswar and Nagpur. However, the PSPV 2.0 rollout in India was completed on May 26, 2025, after which e-passports began to be issued. Its rollout in all Missions/Posts was completed on 28 October 2025.

Do regular passports become redundant now?

Existing non-electronic passports will remain valid until their expiry. Considering that a passport issued in India carries a validity of up to 10 years, the government envisages a full transition to e-passports by June 2035. 

Replacement is not mandatory if you have a regular passport. But going forward, e-passports are a rule and not an option. Applicants cannot manually choose between a traditional passport and an e-passport. The type issued depends on whether the passport office processing the application is equipped for e-passport issuance, officials say. The application process for an e-passport remains the same, and no additional documents or special fees are required.