Any delay beyond the one-year limit may create problems in automatic acquisition of Indian citizenship and issuance of passports for their children.
The consulate, in addition, has asked all Indian nationals living in the Kingdom to get Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) by Nov. 24, 2012. The Saudi government issued a circular to the Indian mission to this effect.
The circular states that if the expatriate fails to get the MRP he may face problems while commuting in and out of the country.
Therefore in order to avoid any hardship, Indians holding hand-written passports are advised to submit their passport applications at Outsourced Agencies, (Al-FIFA/Al-Tayyar/VFS) irrespective of date of expiry to obtain machine-readable passports at normal passport fees.
For any assistance and details contact the consulate’s passport wing at Tel No. 02-6513649.
Meanwhile, a team from the consulate would be visiting Qunfudah to provide consular and passport services to Indian nationals on Thursday, March 8, from 0900 to 1300 hours and 1700 to 2000 hours at Hotel Sea Village (Tel. No. 07-733 2222).
Indian nationals residing in Qunfudah area and Abha, Baha and Jazan may also avail of the opportunity to apply for the consular services and to meet the visiting officials to convey their grievances/suggestions, if any, and issues relating to labor and welfare. They should bring along with them written statements narrating their problems, including consular related services, for redressal.
