Digital passport deadline is looming for Bangladeshis in UAE

Technology is catching up with the old paper Bangladeshi passport, and expat workers are warned to beat the November 24 deadline for updating or their travel plans may have to be altered. Delores JohnShow more

ABU DHABI // More than 50,000 Bangladeshi expats have yet to convert their old handwritten passports with the machine readable digital passports (MRPs).

The international deadline for replacing the old passports ends on November 24. After this date, nobody will be allowed to travel with an old document in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) rules.

The Bangladeshi embassy in Abu Dhabi has stressed that it would continue to receive old documents for replacement after the deadline.

“But in that case, people have to wait up to six weeks to get a new document to travel. For hassle-free travel, residents need to replace their old passports in time,” Bangladesh ambassador to the UAE, Muhammad Imran said.

Those who fail to convert their passports will not be able to travel and would be stopped at immigration, Mr Imran said.

“To facilitate our nationals, we keep receiving old passports to replace them after the deadline but it would take time. In the meantime, if they have to travel they wouldn’t be able to do until they get the new document,” Mr Imran said.

“So far, we have replaced between 650,000 and 660,000 handwritten passports with the machine readable digital passports since we started in January 2011,” the ambassador said.

“We hope to achieve the target of converting all old passports to digital by the time set by the ICAO. We have the infrastructure to deal with it,” he said.

More than 700,000 Bangladeshis reside in the UAE.

Many people travel to Bangladesh on holidays and convert them there, as it takes less than two weeks. In the UAE, the embassy must collect documents and send back home for renewals, Mr Imran said.

The number yet to replace their documents, he said, is mainly those who work in construction fields and live in remote areas.

Up to 200 people visit the embassy every day to submit their old documents or to receive the new digital passports.

Bangladeshi Rakan Mamud Ali said: “I came to submit my old passport to get the machine readable one. My passport has a month’s validity after the deadline.”

“I wasn’t worried as I didn’t have any travel plan for a few months,” Mr Ali said who took a day off to submit the documents.

It takes up to six weeks to get a new digital passport as the embassy dispatches documents to Dhaka for replacements.

Bangladeshi Muniruz Zaman, a foreman, said: “I am planning to travel home after a year. Still I came in time before the deadline. Even if we submit it before a day of the deadline, the embassy will accept this.”

“The embassy said that we would get the new passport within 45 days”, Mr Zaman, who also took a day-off for the documentation work at the embassy, said.

The passport conversion for unskilled workers costs Dh125, while it is priced at Dh405 for professionals.

“I am also applying for a digital passport. My old handwritten passport is valid for the next two years and that’s why I approached the mission at last moment,” said Krishna, a cleaner in Abu Dhabi who gave his first name only.

Construction worker Akhil Das was aware that he could not travel without obtaining the new passport.

“If I had some plans to travel I would have submitted it earlier,” Mr Das said.

The ambassador urged companies to cooperate in passport conversions.