No more name, age changes in passport

Department of Immigration and Passport has stopped approving requests for change on certain information in the passport.

Change in the passport holder’s name, father’s name, mother’s name and age will not be allowed anymore and an order in this regard was issued on March 7.  

“From now on, no more changes of name and age in any passport. The previously used name and age will remain effective,” Major General Md Masud Rezwan, director general (DG) of the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP), told reporters at a meeting with Passport and Immigraton Reporters’ Forum (PIRF) executive committee members at Agargaon in Dhaka.

Since the March 7 order, the passport authorities didn’t approve around 20,000 passport reissuing applications, most of them Bangladeshi expatriates, according to an official of the department.

The applicants randomly apply for re-issuing passports changing their names, father’s name, mother’s name and age. As a result, they are facing problems in immigration abroad, the DG said.

Besides, the image of the country is also being tarnished, he said. 

So, from now on, other than error corrections, no request for changes in the passport will be carried out, he added.