Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said the government will review the issue of reintroducing machine readable passports (MRPs) for Bangladeshi citizens in the US for a certain period alongside the existing e-passports. He was speaking at an interactive session with officers of Bangladesh Embassy in Washington DC on Friday afternoon (US time). The home minister is now leading a Bangladesh delegation to the United States to join the third United Nations Chief of Police Summit (UNCOPS) and other programs. He also said e-visa will be introduced soon, according to the Bangladesh Mission in Washington. “We are going to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) very soon and we hope to be able to start issuing e-visa within six months from that,” he said. Asaduzzaman Khan said the distribution of National Identity (NID) cards has been handed over to the Home Ministry at the directives of the Prime Minister so that all citizens of the country can avail the facilities. Also read: Home Minister, IGP in NY to join UNCOPS

Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) has started enrolment of e-passport and MRP (new and re-issue) on limited scale, after five months off due to Covid-19 pandemic.  

Though the government is simplifying rules and enhancing the efficiency of the system for quicker passport delivery, passport seekers across the country are not getting their passports in time, delaying the emergency foreign tours of many.