Nepal's Department of Passports Nears Final Stage for New Passport Printing Contract

Kathmandu. The Department of Passports, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has stated that preparations for printing passports through a new company are in the final stages.

The department informed that passports printed by the new company are expected to come into use by the first week of Jestha, or at the latest, within the month of Jestha. It was mentioned that the passport distribution system might be affected for some time during that period.

The department stated that it has completed the necessary preparations for the passport system, passport booklets, etc., to issue passports through a new system after signing an agreement with a new supplier for passport procurement. The department clarified that the current system will be replaced within the next one to two months, and services might be slightly affected until the system stabilizes during that interim period.

Somesh Thapa, Director and Spokesperson for the department, stated that there might be some issues once the new company's passports arrive. "It is not certain that there will be problems, but if there are any, they will only be for a few days," he said.

The department announced that passport services provided through District Administration Offices and Nepali missions abroad could be suspended for one to three weeks, and passport services provided by the Department of Passports could be suspended for up to one week.

The department stated that since it will take one to three months for the system to stabilize after the new system is implemented, during that interim period, applications submitted through District Administration Offices and Nepali missions abroad might take longer than the current time to be processed and issued.

The department has awarded the responsibility of printing new passports to two German companies, Veridos and Muehlbauer. These companies have completed all preparations for printing the passports.

Because these two German companies were delayed in printing the passports, the department had temporarily given the responsibility of printing passports for some time to Idemia, which had been printing passports for Nepal for the past 15 years, starting last Mangsir. However, Idemia's agreement with the Government of Nepal had already expired.

When the two German companies indicated they could only start providing passports from the second week of Falgun, Idemia, which had been printing Nepali passports, was given the responsibility to print for some more time. It is now reported that Idemia has stopped printing Nepali passports, and the German companies have started their work.