By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, December 2: The Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, New Delhi on Wednesday posted a public advisory regarding the renewal of the old hand written Identity Certificate or Non-machine readable IC into the digitized machine readable IC.
“This is to inform that the people travelling on old hand written Identity certificate (IC) may face problem at the airport and immigration. Therefore, all are requested to apply for the replacement at the earliest,” the bureau office mentioned in their advisory.
Application for the new IC should be submitted for replacement and for that, select ‘Reissue of Identity Certificate’, then select ‘Change in Existing Personal Particulars’. Subsequently select ‘Others’ and in the ‘Specify’ mention, ‘Change of Handwritten to Machine Readable IC’.
The Delhi Bureau office confirmed that four Tibetans have come forward with problems while going out of India or coming into India with handwritten ICs.
“To ease the problem, we will provide a supporting letter for those who have to travel immediately on the old IC. The letter would state that the old IC is valid and legal and be will asking the immigration to permit them to travel on it,” said Tsewang Gyalpo Arya, Secretary, Bureau Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Moreover, a copy of the letter will be sent to the Ministry of External Affairs.
Those who have to travel urgently will be assisted by the office in procurement of new IC within a month’s time, he said.
He also said that those who still hold validity for more than one year on their old IC can apply for the new ‘machine readable’ one. For that they will have to fill the application form accordingly and mention ‘Change of Handwritten to Machine Readable IC’ in the ‘specify’ option.
The change becomes inevitable as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN Specialized Agency, has set November 24 as a deadline for all the non-machine-readable passports to be upgraded before they are considered null and void. Since India is part of ICAO, the rules will be applied to the Tibetan ICs as well as it is also issued by India.
“Machine-readable passports permit a faster and more convenient border control experience for passengers while delivering enhanced and cost-effective security solutions for States, and ICAO is continuing to encourage all States to comply with these new measures as quickly as possible,” said Dr. Fang Liu, Secretary General, ICAO.
