Passport Seva Portal to be down for 5 days; check dates, reason and other key details

Passport Seva portal will be down for five days starting today from 8 PM IST to September 2 till 6 PM IST, according to Passport Seva official website.

The appointments which were booked for August 30, 2024, have already been rescheduled and applicants will be informed about the rescheduled dates via SMS on their registered numbers.

"Passport Seva portal will be down for technical maintenance from 29th August 2024, Thursday 20:00 hrs IST to 2nd September, Monday 06:00 hrs IST. The system will not be available during this period for citizens and all MEA/RPO/BOI/ISP/DoP/Police Authorities. The already booked appointments for 30th August 2024 will be suitably rescheduled and informed to applicants," the Passport Seva official website has mentioned.

The temporary shutdown of the services is due to maintenance work and during these five days, the system will not be available for any citizen and for all MEA/RPO/BOI/ISP/DoP/Police Authorities.

Advisory - Passport Seva portal will be unavailable from 2000 hrs (29.8.2024) till 0600 hrs (2.9.2024) due to technical maintenance. @SecretaryCPVOIA @MEAIndia @CPVIndia pic.twitter.com/PzZnBMvGcP

— PassportSeva Support (@passportsevamea) August 25, 2024

The passport Seva Portal was closed in March this year too for maintenance purposes.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs has stated that many fraudulent websites and mobile applications gather data from applicants and demand exorbitant fees for filling out the online application form and making an appointment for passport and related services.

"It has come to the notice of the Ministry that many fraudulent websites and mobile applications are collecting data from applicants and also levying additional hefty charges for filling up the online application form and scheduling appointments for Passport and related services. Some of these fake website are registered in the domain name *.org, *.in, *.com such as www.indiapassport.org, www.online-passportindia.com, www.passportindiaportal.in, www.passport-india.in, www.passport-seva.in, www.applypassport.org, and many other similar looking websites," Ministry of External Affairs added.

The government has requested people seeking an Indian passport and associated services not visit the aforementioned bogus websites or make passport-related payments. The official website of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, for passport applications is www.passportindia.gov.in.

Alternatively, candidates may utilise the official mobile app mPassport Seva, which is available for download from the Android and iOS app stores.