Consulate to Issue Ten-Year Validity Passport
Los Angeles, CA: The Consulate General of Pakistan, Los Angeles has started issuing machine readable passports with a ten-year validity period, effective January 2, according to a press release. It states:
Now applicants can avail this facility. On payment of normal fee of $83, the passports with the ten-year validity period shall be delivered in six to seven weeks. On payment of the urgent fee of $216 the passport will be delivered in two to three weeks.
The service began with the consideration that people, from all the Mid and West Coast States, covering a distance of thousands of miles as far as Alaska, must travel to Los Angeles for issuance of their MRP passports, every five years on expiry of the documents.
The procedure requires all applicants to come personally for photographs and fingerprints, therefore, the Pakistani community requested for issuance of passports which are valid for ten years in order to mitigate the travel costs and ancillary expenditures.
The new Consul General, Mr Hamid Asghar Khan, after taking charge of his post last month, issued directions to immediately start issuing passports with a ten-year validity period to facilitate the community.
The Consul General is committed to improving public service delivery services through computerization and better management systems. The Pakistani community has been requested to put forward their suggestions and join hands with the Consulate to ensure that the services are provided efficiently, and courteously.
