Bangladeshi passport

Bangladesh passport
বাংলাদেশ পাসপোর্ট
The front covers of Bangladeshi e-passports with embedded chip
TypePassport
Issued by Department of Immigration & Passports
First issued
  • 8 February 1973 (Traditional Passport)[1]
  • 1 April 2010 (Machine Readable Passport or MRP)[2]
  • 22 January 2020 (Electronic Passport or E-Passport)[3]
PurposeIdentification
Valid inAll countries
EligibilityBangladeshi citizenship
Expiration
  • 10 years for those aged 18 to 65 years
  • 5 years for those aged under 18 or aged over 65 years
Cost
MRP[4]
  • Regular: 3450 (taxes included)
  • Express: 6900 (taxes included)
E-Passport[5]
  • Regular: 4025 (taxes included)
  • Urgent: 8050 (taxes included)
Websitehttps://www.epassport.gov.bd

The Bangladeshi passport is an ICAO compliant, machine-readable and biometric e-passport issued for the purpose of travel to foreign countries by the passport holder. Bangladesh is the first country in South Asia to issue e-passports for all eligible citizens. The passport booklet is manufactured, printed and issued by the Department of Immigration & Passports of the Ministry of Home Affairs. This electronic microprocessor chip embedded e-passport has forty-one different security features, including holographic images embossed in thin-film laminate, which change colour under light and appear to move.[6] Demographic and biometric information of the e-passport holder are stored on the chip inside the e-passport. This information includes the fingerprints of all ten fingers of the passport holder; the iris scan of both eyes; a color photograph of the face of the bearer; their digital signature; etc.[7] Depending on the age of the applicant, the e-passport is valid for either five years or ten years and it is distributed by the Government of The People's Republic of Bangladesh, or by any of its overseas diplomatic missions, to eligible Bangladeshi nationals who are citizens by birth, by descent or through naturalization.[8]

The Government of Bangladesh issues three different types of passports. These are Diplomatic passports with a red cover; Official passports with a blue cover; and ordinary passports with a green cover. The cover of the passport is made of a tough and tear resistant textile material that is highly impervious to chemicals, sweat, damp and heat. Diplomatic passports are only issued to diplomats of Bangladesh. Official passports are only issued to Bangladesh government employees, government officials and envoys. Regular or ordinary passports are issued to the rest of the citizens of Bangladesh. The entire passport is made of environment-friendly materials. It is aesthetically designed with all the blank visa pages of the passport covered in images of important historical landmarks and buildings of Bangladesh, as well as popular Bangladeshi tourist attractions, with their names written in both Bengali and English. Page numbers of the passport are also bilingual – written both in Bengali and in English. Bangladesh's passport is ranked one of the worst in the world for global mobility.[9]

  1. ^ "The Bangladesh Passport Order, 1973 (President's Order)". Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. Government of Bangladesh. 8 February 1973.
  2. ^ "MRP applications from Apr 1". BdNews24.com. 29 March 2010. Archived from the original on 23 January 2020.
  3. ^ "E-passport era begins in Bangladesh". BdNews24.com. 22 January 2020. Archived from the original on 23 January 2020.
  4. ^ "Application guide" (PDF). passport.gov.bd.
  5. ^ "E‑Passport Fees". www.epassport.gov.bd. Department of Immigration and Passports, Ministry of Home Affairs.
  6. ^ "E-Passports set to be on roll in June". The Independent (Bangladesh). 19 March 2019. Archived from the original on 11 April 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  7. ^ Mamun, Shohel (22 June 2018). "30 million e-passports for citizens". Dhaka Tribune. Archived from the original on 2 July 2020.
  8. ^ "Bangladesh to roll out e-passport with 10-year validity from July". BDNews24. 16 May 2019. Archived from the original on 20 May 2019.
  9. ^ "The Official Passport Index Ranking". Retrieved 28 August 2024.