Indian passport fee hike news: Recently, some media reports claimed that the fees for Indian passport and visa services abroad are going to increase drastically, causing concern among the expatriate Indian community. However, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Indian Embassy in Bahrain have dismissed these reports as 'speculation'.

According to media reports, under a new proposed request (RFP) from the government, the cost of consular, passport, and visa (CPV) services may increase by 15 to 20 times. Under this proposal, applicants will have to pay for a combined package, which includes digitization of documents, fingerprint, and facial biometric capture, and four additional services - photocopying, photography, form filling, and courier services. This combined fee will be mandatory even if the applicant does not require all these services, which could increase the cost from $5-7 (approximately ₹415-580) to $90-100 (approximately ₹7,470-8,300).

Following this report, a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Migrant Legal Cell appealed to the government not to implement this proposal. They said in their memorandum, "Many migrants earn modest salaries and will face difficulty in affording the revised fees, which have increased up to five times in some countries."

The embassy said - do not trust
However, the Indian Embassy in Bahrain dismissed these claims and said in a statement that these reports are speculative and should not be believed. The embassy said, "There is no increase in the fees of various consular services provided in Bahrain as claimed. The Embassy advises all concerned to refrain from making any unconfirmed and speculative reports which may cause inconvenience to the Indian community in Bahrain and impact the effective delivery of these services.”

Thus, the MEA and the Indian Embassy in Bahrain clarify that reports of any increase in fees for passport and visa services are purely speculative and no such increase has been made at present.