Hand-written passports become invalid from November 25

New Delhi: Hand-written passports of Indian citizens are no longer valid from Wednesday as per government's directive.

The government had asked those having hand-written passports to get machine-readable ones having bar codes by November 24.

The government had decided to discontinue hand-written passports in accordance with recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to incorporate biometric data in the machine readable travel documents.

Hand-written passports became invalid for travelling abroad from today, said a government official.

The machine readable passports have greater protection against fraudulent practises and tampering.

The hand-written passports were issued prior to 2001.