Pakistan Takes E-Passports Nationwide as NADRA Centres Open Doors From September 7

ISLAMABAD: Starting today, getting an e-passport renewed or reprinted no longer means standing in line at a dedicated passport office. NADRA centres across Pakistan, Karachi included, opened their doors to the service from September 7, according to a spokesperson for the passport department.

New passports, name changes, and machine-readable passport issuance still go through passport offices only. That part hasn't changed. What has changed is where ordinary citizens go for renewals and reprints suddenly a much shorter list of errands.

Pakistan E-Passport Services Expand

The shift comes out of a formal agreement between the Directorate General of Immigration & Passports and NADRA. Expect the transition to unfold gradually: passport counters currently sitting inside NADRA offices will wind down over time, and staff working those counters will get recalled to their original postings. NADRA mega centres, though, keep issuing new e-passports and machine-readable passports under the existing setup for now.

Also Read: Pakistan Eyes One-Stop Passport and ID Services at NADRA Centres

Here's what actually makes this passport different from the one most Pakistanis have carried for years. An electronic chip sits inside it, holding the holder's biometric and personal data. The design meets International Civil Aviation Organization standards the same benchmark air-travel systems worldwide check against. Layer on an NFC chip, laser engraving, infrared markers, and ultraviolet security features, and identity checks at airport counters get both faster and considerably harder to fake.

More than 150 countries already run e-passport systems. Border security demands pushed most of them there, and Pakistan is now catching up rather than leading. The payoff for ordinary travellers: Pakistani e-passport holders gain access to e-gates at airports around the globe, cutting the time spent in manual immigration queues almost everywhere they land.

Faster, Smarter Border Processing

There's a bureaucratic upside too, even if it sounds unglamorous. Officials expect the manual system's usual bottlenecks to ease, and online applications should move through processing faster once fewer counters are handling paper-based cases. Full details sit on the DGI&P website for anyone who wants the fine print.

One detail worth watching: officials are framing this partly around overseas Pakistanis. The e-passport's layered security chip data, laser engraving, UV and infrared checks makes it a document authorities trust more at foreign border crossings, and that trust matters disproportionately for the millions of Pakistanis living and working abroad. Extend that benefit to them, officials argue, and the country gains too, through smoother travel and stronger identity verification wherever they land.

Also Read: No Queues, No Hassle: Pakistan Launches Passport Home Delivery via TCS

Saturday passport delivery counters are also staying open nationwide for the next two months, running 8am to 4pm, giving citizens another window to collect finished passports without taking a weekday off work.

For now, the message to citizens is straightforward: skip the passport office queue for renewals and reprints, and head to the nearest NADRA centre instead.