DHAKA, Jan 7, 2025 (BSS) - SMS service in delivering e-passports for expatriate Bangladeshis will begin tomorrow, Chief Adviser's Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder said today.

"Major General Md Nurul Anwar, the director general of the Department of Immigration and Passports, has given us a good news...there is a SMS service in delivering e-passports at home and this SMS service will begin abroad tomorrow for expatriate Bangladeshis," he told a press briefing.

The press briefing was held at the Foreign Service Academy here this evening.

Azad said when the e-passports of the expatriates will be ready at home and those will be sent to Bangladesh missions abroad, they will be informed through SMS to their phone numbers notifying that their passports are ready for delivery. 

He said once the SMS service is launched, the suffering of the expatriates will ease.

Besides, he said, due to departmental complexities, about 1.97 lakh machine-readable passports (MRPs) of expatriate Bangladeshis were pending for printing.
 
In the last three weeks, 1,82,745 MRPs were sent to Bangladesh missions abroad and those would be delivered soon, the deputy press secretary said.

He said the interim government hopes that about 1.2 crore expatriate Bangladeshis will get benefit from these services.

Mentioning that many initiatives are underway to ease the processes of issuing passport and its delivery, Azad said the government and the passport department have been working to make passport offices broker-free to minimise the suffering of passport seekers.

He said many people suffer while filling up passport forms online from brokers who stay nearby passport offices and this is why the government is considering hiring proper agents through outsourcing to help the passport seekers while filling up their passport forms.

Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam also spoke at the briefing.