Issued by Bangladesh Purpose Identification | Type of document Passport | |
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Eligibility requirements Bangladeshi citizenship Expiration 5 years from the date of issue | ||
The Bangladeshi Passport is issued to the citizens of Bangladesh for international travel. The passport is issued by the Government of The People's Republic of Bangladesh or by any of its overseas missions to the Bangladeshi citizens who are citizens by birth or by descent. The passport of Bangladesh is valid in all countries of the world except Israel, which is a state not recognized by Bangladesh.
Contents
Machine Readable Passport (MRP)
The Bangladesh Government has implemented a project to replace 6.6 million Bangladeshi passports with new machine-readable passports. According to a guideline of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Machine-readable Passport (MRP) and Machine-readable Visa (MRV) issuance was started by Bangladesh Government in April 2010. However, all traditional non-MR passports will be honored as a bona fide travel document issued by the Bangladesh Government until it expires. All traditional non-MR passports must be withdrawn from circulation by November 2015. Machine-readable passports for Bangladesh are produced by Polish Security Printing Works (Polska Wytwornia Papierow Wartosciowych).
The Bangladesh Government will set up 85 new passport offices and 6 visa cells at home and abroad for issuing Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) and Machine Readable Visas (MRVs). For non-resident Bangladeshis, 66 passport offices will be set up at 66 Bangladesh Missions and Consulates abroad, who will issue the Machine-readable Passports. The replacement of all of the passports will take almost 3 years, which will fall inside the deadline of November 2015.
Issuance of Machine Readable Passport
(a) Paper application or
(b) Online application
Types of Passport
A Bangladeshi citizen may hold any of the following three types of passports.
Ordinary Passport (Green cover)
This is the most common type of passport. Any citizen of Bangladesh may possess a Regular or a Business passport for international travel. Any age of Children traveling also requires a passport and may not be able to travel with their parent's passport. The maximum validity period of a "business" or "regular" passport is 5 years, which can be 10 years as well in some cases.
Official Passport (Blue cover)
Government Officials of Bangladesh are entitled to receive this type of passport. It provides the holder visa free access to certain countries such as Russia, China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Kuwait, Cambodia, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Chile, Turkey, Laos, Belarus that usually doesn't allow visa free access to "regular" or "business" passport holders. Official passports are identified by a blue stamp on the first page that reads "Official".
Diplomatic Passport (Red cover)
This type of passport can only be held by Bangladeshi citizens who are members or staffs of the diplomatic community. In addition, the Members of Parliament receive this type of privileged passport. This passport provides visa free access to more countries than the "official" passport. "Diplomatic" passports can be distinctly identified by their red cover which sets them apart from the green-colored "regular", "business", or "official" passports.
Delivery type
a) Regular : 21 days
b) Express : 9 days
Fees
a) Regular : BDT3,000 + VAT BDT450 Totaling BDT3,450
b) Express : BDT6,000 + VAT BDT900 Totaling BDT6,900
extra hiding commission (2,000 BDT)
Depository Banks
Passport fees can be deposited at any branch of the following banks
- Sonali Bank
- Dhaka Bank
- Bank Asia
- Premier Bank
- One Bank
- Trust Bank
The fees can be paid online through credit card and mobile phone also.
Invalid
In August 2012, it was discovered that up to 6,000 MRPs were invalid through Immigration Headquarters in Agargaon. Over 100,000 passports were made invalid by the Department of Immigration and Passports.
Passport note
The inside cover contains the date and place of issuance of the passport as well as the declaration of the President, addressing the authorities of all other states, identifying the bearer as a citizen of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and requesting that he or she be allowed to pass and be treated as per international norms. The note inside of the Bangladeshi passports states:
In Bengali (Bangla):
In English:
Passport holder identity
Information about the passport holder are spread across seven or more pages in the contemporary Bangladesh passport. The field names (e.g. name) are written in Bengali (Bangla) and English, with the field values is written in English only. No information regarding gender or faith are required.
The inside cover of a machine-readable Bangladeshi passport has an embossed image of the National Monument, with the national anthem of Bangladesh written in Bengali (Bangla) and English.
The first page contains the President's declaration in Bengali and English, and states that the passport is valid for all the countries in the world except Israel.
The second page is the main data page. It contains all information pre-printed on a thin plastic paper. The information printed are:
In addition, more information regarding the passport holder is encoded using optical character recognition, and can only be read by a particular machine.
The third page contains eight instructions for the passport holder in Bengali only, with a statement in English reading:
If lost abroad the founder of this passport is requested to deposit it to the nearest Bangladesh Mission/Consulate.It also contains the passport number printed on the page.
The fourth page contains further information of the bearer:
All information is printed using a dot matrix printer and is in English only. It is then signed by the appropriate officer of the issuing authority.
The inside back of the passport contains an embossed image of the National Parliament of Bangladesh in Bengali and English, with a quotation of Louis I Kahn, the architect of the complex, in English.
Geographical validity
The passport is currently valid for all countries of the world except Israel. Passports were formerly not valid for entry to Taiwan, Rhodesia or South Africa.
Visa requirements
In 2016, Bangladeshi citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 39 countries and territories, ranking the Bangladeshi passport 96th in the world according to the Visa Restrictions Index.