• Passport applicants in Lahore face significant delays.
• Normal category applicants wait over four months for passports.
• Urgent category applicants receive passports after two months.

LAHORE—Applicants of normal and urgent categories have been facing significant delays in the issuance of passports for months due to the insufficient printing capacity of the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports.

Those who have applied in the normal category are waiting for more than four months, while urgent category applicants are receiving their passports after two months. This is a stark contrast to the official timeline stated on the official website, where normal fee passports are supposed to be issued after 21 working days and urgent fee passports within 5 working days.

However, the reality on the ground is different, with applicants experiencing inordinate delays in obtaining their passports.

Update on Passport Issuance Duration in Pakistan

A positive development was reported a day earlier, as the government has decided to procure new printing machines to address the ongoing passport crisis. The Directorate General of Passports and Immigration is preparing a requisition for the procurement of these machines, which will be sent to the Ministry of Interior. It is anticipated that the new machines will be imported by September.

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The new machines will have the capability to print up to 1,000 passports per hour. If imported, these machines are expected to significantly reduce the passport issuance time in the country.

The introduction of these new machines could provide much-needed relief to applicants and improve the efficiency of the passport issuance process.