Did you know how many types of passports are issued in India? Well, there are different types of passports that come with special or no benefits. To find out the nature of passports that you have, read on to know the different types of Indian passports and their benefits.

Ordinary Passports

It’s the common man’s passport. These blue-coloured passports enable the immigration and customs officials to distinguish between the common man and government officials of India holding high ranks.

Diplomatic or Official Passport

These passports are issued to Indian diplomats and senior government officials. Such passport holders become eligible for various benefits during foreign tours. Also, these diplomatic passport holders can get easy clearance from immigration formalities, and much faster than regular people.

Orange Passport

These passports started getting issued for Indian citizens from 2018, when the government launched this passport, which looks absolutely different from the other passports. It is meant to identify people who have not studied beyond class 10. Unlike the regular passport, these passports won’t have the last page which mentions all the critical details. These people who are not educationally qualified fall under the ECR (immigration check required) category.

White Passport

It’s one of the most powerful passports for which government officials are the eligible recipients. It is issued to those who are travelling abroad for official work, whereas this passport makes it easy for the migration and customs officials to identify the holder as a government official and offer them the due treatment.

Biometric passport

At the latest Union Budget Speech (2022), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the Indian e-passport would be rolled out during 2022-23.

This announcement has caused a lot of misconceptions of what the Indian e-passport really is.

Some claim that the e-passport will eliminate the need to apply for a visa when traveling abroad. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Indian citizens will still need to apply for a visa when visiting a country. Unless of course, they enjoy visa-free travel.

Then What Is The Indian e-Passport?

The Indian e-passports, also known as a biometric passport, is an international travel document which will contain your personal information such as your name, surname, date of birth, etc.

Unlike a "traditional passport", the e-passport contains a small microchip embedded within the passport booklet.

The microchip has 64 kilobytes of memory which stores all your important information.

The microchip holds your essential passport details found on the second page. Furthermore, it also contains your digital photograph, signatures, and fingerprints.

The Benefits Of The Indian e-Passport

Faster Immigration Process

If you're a frequent traveler, you already know how frustrating and tiresome immigration checkpoints can be.

The Indian e-passport enables a more efficient global immigration process for Indian citizens. With the embedded microchip, your e-passport will only take a few seconds to load and verify your information.

The hope is that these immigration checkpoints will be automated soon - effectively streamlining the immigration process and granting easier entry into countries worldwide.

Increased Security and Protection

The biggest benefit of the Indian e-passport is the added security. Fraud and identity theft has long been a problem for travelers.

With your Indian e-passport comes added security that can only be accessed by the chip system belonging to security offices.

When your passport is tampered with, the system will automatically detect it, and the passport authentication process will fail.

Why Can't The Indian e-Passport Be Used As A Visa?

The Indian government will distribute the new e-passport amongst its citizens during 2022 and 2023. However, keep in mind that this is a travel identity document issued by the Indian government.

Each country has its own specific entry requirements for international travelers.

Typically, the main requirement is a visa.

A visa is issued by the Consulate (or Embassy) of the country you plan to visit and not by the Indian government. For this reason, an e-passport won't replace your visa.