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A very important and big official update has been issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for families and parents of small children planning to travel abroad. If you are going to get a new passport for your child below 15 years of age or are preparing to re-issue the old passport, then relying on old patterns and old rules can prove costly. The Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India has made a major amendment in the Passport Rules, 1980 by notifying the ‘Passport (Amendment) Rules, 2026’ in the Official Gazette and implementing it with immediate effect. Under this new notification signed by the Chief Passport Officer and Joint Secretary of the Central Government, far-reaching changes have been made in the validity, renewal conditions and application fee structure of passports for minors below 15 years of age. This new guideline has been implemented with immediate effect at the Regional Passport Offices (RPOs) and Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK) of all the cities like Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Jaipur and Bengaluru.
The most fundamental change under the amended rules has been made in sub-rule (1A) of Rule 12. As per the new provisions, a 36-page ordinary Indian passport issued to any child below 15 years of age will be valid for a maximum period of 5 years from the date of issue or till the child completes 18 years of age, whichever is earlier. It is very easy to understand this with a practical example: If a passport is issued to a 10 year old child, it will remain legally valid for 5 years i.e. till the child turns 15 years old. But if a child’s passport is issued at the age of 14 or 14.5 years, then it will not last for full 5 years, rather as soon as the child turns 18 and reaches the category of adult, the validity of that passport will automatically end at that very moment. As soon as the person completes 18 years of age, it will be mandatory for that person to apply for a fresh ordinary adult passport as an adult citizen. The direct objective of this rule is to keep children in compliance with the changing facial features, biometric identification and international immigration security standards as they grow older.
Along with validity, the Ministry of External Affairs has also notified new rates of application fee under Rule 8(1) of the Passport Rules, which are now being charged as per the revised Schedule-IV. Now making passports even for children has become more expensive than before. As per the new revised fee structure, the government fee for application for fresh passport with 36 pages or re-issue of old passport (General category) for minor children below 18 years of age has been increased from ₹1,000 to ₹1,750. At the same time, if a child’s passport has to be made in ‘Tatkal’ category due to any emergency, school trip, sports competition or sudden family trip, then parents will now have to pay a fee of ₹ 4,250 instead of ₹ 3,000. However, while giving relief to the families of small children, the government has made it clear that the prescribed discount of 10 percent on ‘fresh’ i.e. new passport application of children below 8 years of age for the first time will continue as before. Parents will also have to keep in mind that this 10 percent concession will be available only on new application for the first time, this relaxation will not be applicable in cases of re-issue or renewal of old passport.
Parents often ask the question that while adults are given a passport with full validity of 10 years, why is this limit limited to a maximum of 5 years for minors. According to the global guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the most rapid changes in children’s physical development occur during the period from childhood to adolescence. The appearance of a 5 year old child changes completely by the time he turns 10 or 12. Additionally, fingerprints and iris scans of children below 5 years of age are not captured at the Passport Seva Kendra, only their passport size photograph with white background is accepted. When the child grows up, e-gates and facial recognition systems (FRS) at international airports are not able to match the current face with the old photo. If there is a huge difference between the photo in the passport and the present face of the child, then one has to face serious problems like interrogation at the foreign immigration counter, suspicion and at times being stopped from boarding. This strict rule has been implemented to protect Indian families from this global risk.
Many times, parents are seriously careless about the final expiry date of their children’s passport, due to which the entire international trip gets cancelled. Most major countries in the world—such as the US, UK, UAE (Dubai), European Schengen countries, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Canada—have strict international immigration rules that require a minimum validity of 6 months of a traveler’s passport on the date of your travel. If the passport of your child under 15 years of age technically expires after 4 or 5 months, no international airline will issue you a boarding pass to fly from an Indian airport. After the implementation of the new 5-year rule, parents are advised to submit the re-issue application to the Passport Seva Kendra at least 9 to 10 months before the expiry of their child’s passport, so that the high fees and mental stress of Tatkal quota can be completely avoided.
Under the new rules, it is mandatory for parents to carry the correct set of documents while submitting the application of a minor at a Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) or Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK). It is mandatory to submit the original birth certificate of the child issued by the Municipal Corporation or competent authority, original passports of both the parents and their self-attested photocopies, Aadhar card of the parents and address proof. If either of the parents has a valid passport in which the name of the spouse is mentioned, the process of police verification in case of a child is made very quick and simple. Additionally, if one of the parents is working abroad or is a single parent/divorced case, a duly declared declaration on the relevant annexure (e.g. Annexure C or D) is required. Physical presence of the child is mandatory at the Passport Seva Kendra, where his/her fresh photograph is taken through live camera and the documents are thoroughly scrutinized.