Bengaluru: Renewing an Indian passport in the UAE has become a race against time. A legal stalemate in Delhi is behind it.
Since 1 July, the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General in Dubai have run passport, visa and attestation services directly from their own premises for the first time in 17 years. This is due to the contracts of longtime outsourcing partners BLS International and SGIVS Global Services expiring on 30 June, according to Gulf News. A new operator, Alhind Tours and Travels LLC, was meant to take over on 1 July. It planned to run a unified system of 16 Indian Consular Application Centres. But a legal challenge before the Delhi High Court has stalled the handover.
Two firms that lost the tender, E Trav Tech and Verasys, contested how the Embassy evaluated bids. The dispute has since reached the Supreme Court. It ordered that the status quo be maintained while the Delhi High Court hears the case again.
With BLS and SGIVS shutting down and Alhind unable to formally step in, the missions are running services themselves. This change has come just as summer travel season peaks for the UAE’s 4.5-million-strong Indian community.
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Appointments only
The Dubai consulate has stopped walk-ins entirely. Only applicants with a confirmed slot booked through a new portal, book.passportindiauae.com, are let in. Slots open daily at 8pm for the next working day. Booking one has become a scramble.
Neha Bhagwat found this out when her son’s passport fell three days short of Thailand’s six-month validity rule, with a trip already booked.
“My son is travelling to Thailand on July 18, and I recently realised his passport falls short of the required six months’ validity by just three days,” she told Khaleej Times. The booking link kept failing, she said. She, her husband and a colleague all tried and failed before an appointment finally came through. At the consulate, she found a queue nearly a kilometre long. Security checked every applicant’s slot confirmation.
“The moment the submission was complete, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief,” she said. “I can’t believe I stood and cried at the Indian Consulate.”
Others are still stuck. Hasib Khan has tried repeatedly to book but keeps missing a verification email. Urgent travel is now bearing down on him, Khaleej Times reported. Harmeet Suri is waiting on his daughter’s renewed passport before an August trip. He was told it could take three weeks to arrive.
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Costlier and cash-only
Passport fees have also risen. A regular renewal now costs Dh 450, up from Dh 285. It’s the first fee revision since 2012. Payments are accepted only in cash. The Embassy has separately warned applicants against agents falsely claiming to arrange appointments. Booking on the official portal is free, it said.
The Delhi High Court’s judgment is still pending. The missions call the current in-house arrangement temporary. They’ve promised updates “in due course.” But there’s no clear end date in sight.