What is a Passport

We Indians are free to travel anywhere within the country without any restriction from any state agency or organization. However if you want to travel outside the shores of India, then the most basic document that you would need is a Passport.

Passport looks like a bloated Ration Card and comes with a wrapper which is in Dark Blue Color. This one is issued to the common public by the Ministry Of External Affairs Of India, upon going through quite a few procedures which we will discuss in detail later in this article. It should be kept in mind that Passport is a document which certifies you as a person who is ‘Eligible For out Of India Travel’. It does not give you a direct permission to travel anywhere in the world. For that the permissions have to be obtained from the embassy of the intended country you wish to visit, and upon due scrutiny they provide you the Permission to visit their country. This is given in the form of a Visa.

Expiry Date of a Passport

Like Driving License, Passport also come with an expiry date. Usually for the common public it is issued for a period of 10 Years, after which you must re-new it for further period, irrespective of whether you have ever travelled out of India or not.

Types of Passport

There are three types of Passport and they all have different outer cover color. The Dark Blue Colored one is for the common public. There is a Red Colored one which is issued to all the Defence Personnel in the rank of Officers & above as well as to Other Senior Level Govt functionaries, who are essentially from the IAS Stream. Then there is the White Colored One which is issued to Heads of State, Cabinet Ministers as well as to Central Government Level Diplomats, for eg. Indian Ambassadors to various countries of the world.

Content updated in January 2023