New Delhi: External Affairs Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj today said that, “no police verification is required for for fresh passport”. Swaraj’s comment came on Sunday afternoon at a news conference to outline the foreign policy achievements of the Narendra Modi government over the past two years, also about recent developments.

Swaraj also clarified that fresh applicants are just required submit their photo-identification card which includes PAN Card, Aadhaar Card, Driving License, Election Card, Senior Citizen Card. If any of the above is submitted by an applicant at the Passport Seva Kendra with relevant documents (ration card, electricity bill, house rent receipt) then the applicant will not face hectic police verification, said a source from MEA.

The steps of avoiding police verification has been taken by the MEA to smoothen the process of fresh passport application. Normally in metro cities the process of police verification takes somewhere between 10-15 days and outside metro the process of police verification completes between 20-30 days.

Swaraj said, “We have streamlined the process of getting passports. Last year we gave 98 lakh passports”.

Earlier this year, Swaraj had promised to smoothen the application and police verification process for fresh passport. In Bengaluru, the Regional Passport Office has started police verification through online medium, which makes the process smoother and the applicant gets passport within 10 days.

The average time taken by police in Gujarat to verify fresh application is 27 days. Delhi takes only 12 days to complete police verification, while Assam on an average takes 265 days.