Applying for MRPs In Nepal

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

We need machine-readable passports (MRPs) to travel abroad, as the hand written passports have been out of date and we have experiences in the immigration offices at different international airports that the immigration officers don’t feel so comfortable with such hand-written passports. In fact, some such officials have already suggested us to apply for MRPs. Our hand written passports are valid until 2014 but we want to apply for MRPs for smooth travel abroad.

First thing we did is to visit website http://cpo.gov.np/ of the Government of Nepal, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Central Passport Office. The website has the passport application form, and rules to follow for applying for MRPs.

After visiting the website, we are glad that we just need to fill out the form following the rules. So, I down loaded the form and meticulously filled out two forms: one for me and another for my spouse, made photocopies of our citizenship certificates, made our photos following the instructions published in the state-run newspaper ‘gorkhapatra’. We did everything excepting for gluing our photos on the forms, as we did not have glue.

The website says that anybody can have MRPs surrendering the old passports even if they are valid. So, even if our passports were valid for two more years, we went with the forms and citizenship certificates and passports to the Kathmandu district office in November 2011. We were almost sure that we would not have any problem in applying for MRPs.

Previously, applicants needed to submit their applications for MRPs at the Central Passport Office, Kathmandu. Now, the submission of applications is decentralized. Applications for MRPs need to submit at the concerned district office. Upon receipt of applications, the concerned district office checks the citizenship certificates, and sends the applications with the recommendation to the Central Passport Office. It takes 40 days to process. However, if you need a passport urgently, you apply for the fast track processing paying twice the regular charge for a passport. The fee for the regular processing is Rs 5,000 (five thousands). So, you need to pay Rs 10,000 (ten thousands) for the fast track processing of passports, and submit the application at the Central Passport Office. However, you need to go to the district office and get your citizenship certificate verified before taking the application to the Central Passport Office. 

A number of people are standing in line for submitting their applications for MRPs at the Kathmandu district office. We are confused a little bit, as we don’t know whom to contact for glue to paste our photos on the applications forms. Asking a person standing on a line for submitting an application, we came to know a small crowded stall was providing the customers with the service of filling out MRP forms and doing everything needed to make the application forms perfect.

We approached a lady at the small stall serving the customers for glue. She had so many customers that she did not have time to listen to our request. Even though the number of people was not more than ten, the crowd had become impenetrable. She was gluing photos of her customers on their application forms and giving them away. Obviously, she had filled out a number of forms. So, we could not get glue from her.

On the way to the Kathmandu district office at one end corner of the road, we had notice a small stall with a photocopy machine, and a notice ‘We fill out MRP application forms’. So, we walked back to the stall and inquired for glue. The man behind the photocopy machine asked us for seeing our application forms. Looking at our forms, the man said that these forms would not be acceptable, as they were not of the size the Central Passport Office required. I told him that I downloaded the form from the website of the Central Passport Office. Pointing to a man standing outside the stall, he said, ‘show your forms to him’. We gave our forms to the obviously retired state employee. Looking at our forms, he asked for our citizenship certificates. We gave our citizenship certificates. He immediately said, ‘you won’t get MRPs with these citizenship certificates; you need a new citizenship certificate. The record of your citizenship certificate is not available.’

I received my citizenship certificate from the Kathmandu Zonal Office 33 years ago. During the last three decades many political and administrative changes had been in Nepal. Obviously, the record of my citizenship certificate was lost. However, this citizenship certificate has been as good as any other citizenship certificate for any other official purposes other than the Central Passport Office that needs a citizenship certificate with the record of it at the district office.

Then, I asked, ‘what process we need to follow for getting a new citizenship certificate.’ He showed us the forms to fill out. We believed him and then thought once we could not receive MRPs without new citizenship certificates we needed to process for new citizenship certificates. So, we asked him whether he could help us filling out the forms.

The man immediately took out forms from his black bag and started off filling out the forms. Following the information given in our citizenship certificates, he filled out the forms, and made photocopies of the citizenship certificates and showed the portion where we needed to get the certification of our residence at the Ward No. 3, by the Ward-3 Official of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City. The form for applying a new citizenship certificate cost Rs 10, for duplicate citizenship Rs 5. We need to fill out both the forms and then paste Rs 10 postal stamp on each of them. The man did everything including the pasting of postal stamps. He charged Rs 120 to each of us for the service including the cost of forms and postal stamps. We were simply very glad that he had provide us with such services otherwise it would have taken some time to understand the process and then fill out the forms and so on. The man behind a photocopy machine said, ‘don’t forget to come to us for filling out MRP forms.’

After having the application forms for new citizenship certificates filled out, we drove to the Ward No. 3 office of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City for the certification of our residence at the Ward 3. I went with the forms to the office while my spouse stayed on in a car. The administrative official of the ward is called secretary. Fortunately, he was in the office. I spread out the forms on his desk and told him that we needed new citizenship certificates for MRP applications. So, we needed the certification of our residence at the ward No 3. He looked at me and then signed off the forms certifying our residence at the ward.

Then, I needed a seal of the office on the documents and asked the office assistant for the seal. He told me to go to the accountant and pay the fees required for certifying our documents. The accountant also was in the office. He took out the receipt pad and wrote Rs 10 for application and Rs 50 for certification altogether Rs 60 for each of our forms. With the receipt, I came back to the office assistant and showed him the receipt. He put the seal of the office of the ward No 3 on the documents and asked me to make photocopies of the documents for him to keep the records of those documents at the ward office.

By the time we got the certification of our documents from the Ward No 3 office of Kathmandu Metropolitan, it was already late afternoon; so we decided not to go back to the Kathmandu district office.

Next day, we went to the Kathmandu district office at the early hours of the office. We gave two forms to the official just arrived at the window No 6. He immediately wrote something on the back of my application for a duplicate citizenship certificate and asked me to go to the next office. He put the documents of my spouse on hold saying that she needed certification from the Bhaktapur district office, as she had received the citizenship certificate from there. To this end, his office needed to write a letter to the Bhaktapur district office but the official that would sign the document had not come, yet.

I took my application for a new citizenship to one official after another. The first official read what the official at the window No 6 initially wrote something on the back of my application, and then checked my citizenship certificate and signed off the document and gave the documents back to me. Then, I took the documents to the next official. He read through the writing on the back of my application but did not bother to check other documents. He signed off the document and gave the document back to me. Finally, I went to the last official that simply signed off the documents after looking at the signatures of the three officials. Later on, I understood that this process was for deciding that the record of my citizenship certificate was not available and I needed a new citizenship certificate.

Then, with all the documents, I needed to go to the window No 1. The official behind the window looking at my documents told me that I needed a land ownership certificate to prove I resided at Ward No 3, as my birthplace was Bhaktapur even though the Ward No 3 office of the Kathmandu Metropolitan had already certified that I lived there. I told him that I had already submitted the migration certificate issued by the Kathmandu Metropolitan Office, and the Ward No 3 had already certified that I lived there.

The official behind the window No 1 finally gave in and wrote recommendation of the application for a new citizenship with warning to me of other officials would not sign off the document without the copy of the land ownership certificate. I just kept quiet. He checked the citizenship certificate of my spouse. Then, he called my spouse and asked her to put her thumbprints and then mine on the document. Later on, I understood that my spouse certified that I should get a new citizenship certificate.

Then, I went back to the three officials that had certified that the record of my citizenship certificate was not available. The first official signed off the document and turned over the documents back to me then I went to other two officials. Each one of them signed off the document without any question.

Then, I went to the next official at the window No 1 but with a notice saying ‘pasting a photo to complete the process’. I gave all the documents to the man behind the window. He checked all the signatures of the officials and wrote the records of the document on a large book and asked me for a photo. He glued the photo on the large book and asked me to print my left and right thumbs on the columns of the large book. He took the documents to the computer operator for typing all the information required on a new citizenship certificate.

Finally, a new citizenship certificate came with all the documents at the window next to the window of gluing a photo. I gave an auto size photo to glue it on the new citizenship certificate. He glued the photo and gave it with all the documents back to me and asked me to go to the official at window No 3. I took all the documents and the new citizenship certificate to the window No 3. The official behind the window once again checked all the documents and then signed off the new citizenship certificate on both sides: one side in Nepali and another in English, turned over all the documents back to me. Then, I took all the documents back to the window where the official glued my photo on the citizenship certificate. He took out a small circular hologram and pasted it at the border between the photo and the document and turned over the new citizenship certificate to me asking me to check all the information given on the document. I simply followed his instruction and found the data is correct. At the end of the document, it says that this new citizenship certificate is given following the previous citizenship. Reading out this information, I wondered if it was so why all those administrative hassles were.

Concerning the documents of my spouse, she had been still holding them in her hand. Apparently she was waiting for the official to come for writing a letter to the Bhaktapur district office for verifying the record of her citizenship certificate. Later on, we understood that they would write such a letter only after 2:00 PM. So, we waited for. We again submitted the documents to the official behind the window No 6. The man took a look at the documents and said that a landownership certificate and a marriage certificate were required before writing a letter to the Bhaktapur district office even though we submitted the migration certificate and her citizenship certificate that says I am the husband. We requested the official to write a letter to the Bhaktapur district office so that we could go to Bhaktapur and bring a letter of verification from the Bhaktapur district office, and submit with it other documents but the official did not step back from what he had already said. So, we gave in and came back home.

Back home, we sat together and thought what to do next. Going through the process of getting a new certificate was the administrative hassle. To avoid such a hassle, we decided to go to the Bhaktapur district office for taking recommendations for the fast track MRPs, as my spouse received the citizenship certificate from that district hoping the record of the citizenship issued 28 years ago would be intact.

Next day, with all the documents required for applying for MRPs, we went to the same small stall at the corner of a road, and asked them to fill out the forms for applying MRPs. A young man behind a computer filled out the forms, the retiree working as a consultant to the applicants for MRPs checked the forms comparing the information filled out with the citizenship certificates. Then, he asked for photos to glue on the forms. He found my photo okay but the photo of my spouse not so comfortable. He said that the red tika on the photo would not be acceptable but we did not say anything. He did not bother anymore and glued the photos and made final checking of the forms. He wrote applications to the district offices for processing the forms for MRPs, and glued ten-rupee postal stamps on them. We paid Rs 120 for all the work he had done and stamps, and Rs 100 for each form filled out.

As the Kathmandu district office has made a rule to process the forms for the fast track MRPs only after 2:00 PM, we drove to the Bhaktapur district office for processing the application of my spouse for a MRP. The passport processing office has a young man working on a computer. We laid out the form with the application for certifying the citizenship certificate on his desk.

He said that he did not require the application with the ten-rupee postal stamp but would write the recommendation just behind the application form. He took a look at the back of the form but found it clean sheet. He said why we did not have the print of the portion of the form where the district would make a recommendation. He showed the sample of the recommendation; we needed to print it behind the form for making recommendation. We got lost again. We needed to travel back to Kathmandu to get the backside of the form printed with the portion of the form for the district to make recommendation.

The young man was very considerate. He printed out the missing portion of the forms from his computer. He asked to go to the archive of the citizenship certificates and get the citizenship certificate of my spouse verified with the record.

We went to the archive, and asked the young man there to verify the citizenship certificate. He took some time in the archive room to verify the citizenship certificate, and came out and signed off the photocopy of the citizenship certificate.

We came back to the passport office at the Bhaktapur District Office. The young man behind the computer, once again check the application form of my spouse and found that my spouse had received the passport from the Kathmandu district office and she had already migrated to Kathmandu. So, he said that the Bhaktapur district office would not make any recommendation for a MRP. Only thing he could provide her was the verification of the citizenship certificate.

I wrote the application for the verification of the citizenship certificate as dictated by him for my spouse. My spouse signed off the application. The official took out the ten-rupee postal stamp from the previous application to the Bhaktapur district office, and glued it on the new application, and asked us to go to the official-in-charge and get his approval for verification of the citizenship certificate. We found the young official at the computer of the passport office was very helpful and appreciated him very much.

We went to the office of the official-in-charge and laid out the application on his desk. He read the application and just looked at us casually and canceled the postal stamp and then signed off the document approving the request for verification of the citizenship certificate.

We came back to the passport office at the Bhaktapur District Office. The young man asked us to go to the archive and get the citizenship certificate verified. We went back to the archive office. The man was not so happy to see us again at his archive office. He said that he had just signed off the photocopy of the citizenship certificate for the application for a MRP even though the record of the citizenship certificate was not found. So, he was a bit nervous about it and wrote that the record of the citizenship was not available. And he took the application for the verification to the passport office and told us that the young man there was writing a letter stating the record of the citizenship certificate was not available. He kept the photocopy of the citizenship certificate he had signed off stating it was verified even though the record was not available as we found out.

We came back to Kathmandu with the letter from the Bhaktapur district office saying the record of the citizenship certificate was not available. It was too late to submit this letter to the Kathmandu district office. So, we came back home and put together photocopies of all the documents such as the land and home ownership certificate, migration certificate, marriage certificate and character certificate, and the letter from the Bhaktapur district office stating the record of the citizenship certificate was not available.

Next day, we drove off to the Kathmandu district office arriving just before the office was opened, and directly went to the window No 6 for processing the application for a new citizenship certificate. The official checked all the documents and without words he wrote something behind the application for a duplicate citizenship certificate, and turned over the documents to us mentioning the numbers of windows we have to pass through.

We simply repeated the processes of getting the citizenship certificate mentioned earlier. We spent the whole day for completing the process but were glad that finally we received a new citizenship certificate for my spouse. We were one step ahead to applying for MRPs.

The Kathmandu district office processes the MRP applications after 1:00 PM but the window No 6 of the citizenship office verifies the citizenship certificates only after 2:00 PM.

So, next day, we went to the stall at the corner of a road to the Kathmandu district office for filling out the application of my spouse for a MRP at 1:00 PM. The young man behind the computer filled out the form and the retiree checked it. Then, he wrote an application to the Kathmandu district office for recommending a fast track processing for a MRP.

With the two application forms for MRPs, we went to the window No 6, and asked for verification of our citizenship certificates. The official asked us to go to the computer room for it. The young lady at the computer room was very polite and did her job quickly.

By the time, we reached the window No 5 for processing the fast track application for MRPs, it was already 2:15. The official behind the window closed the window at our face saying the working hour was from one to two. We thought we did not have any alternative but come to the office next day. However, we stayed on for some time. We saw some people going in and coming out of the office with documents in their hands.

With curiosity we went to the office and found that some officials were still working there. We submitted our applications to the officials. Without words, he processed the documents and sent us to the official at window No 5.3 for his signature. We got his signature immediately and came back to the same official. He wrote something on one of the documents and sent us to the office No 20 where the official checked our names, names of our fathers and date of birth before approving the applications.

With the approval of the official at office No 20, we came back to the same official that we first had contacted. He checked the signature of the official working at the office No 20 and then sent us to the official at the window No 5.3. The official at the window No 5.3 pulled out the applications to the Kathmandu district office and one photocopy of the citizenship certificate of each of us and returned us other documents saying ‘go to the Central Passport Office’. Thus we did the first step of the processing of the applications for MRPs.

We came back to the small stall where the people there helped us for filling out the application forms and writing applications to the Kathmandu and Bhaktapur district offices. We told them that we got our applications processed by the Kathmandu district office.

The retiree asked us whether we needed some help for submitting our applications at the Central Passport Office. Seeing a long line of applicants at the gate to the Central Passport Office whenever we passed by the area we thought that we better have his service than just to join the sea of the applicants.

The retiree said that he would charge Rs 1,500 (one thousand five hundred) to each of us for his service. In fact, he said that he was not pocketing the money he would receive only Rs 200 (two hundred), but needed to pay different persons at the Central Passport Office, and the man that would escort us to the Central Passport Office.

The retiree made a phone call to the man supposed to escort us. He came to us after some time. He checked all our documents and said that the photo of my spouse with tika would not be acceptable so we needed to make a photo without tika. We also needed to include the photocopies of old passports and take the original passports with us.

So, we went to the nearby photo shop and made the photo of my spouse without tika. They helped us to glue the photos on the application forms and put the photocopies of other missing documents, and then agreed to meet at 11:00 next day morning.

Next morning, we met with the escort at the designated area and we walked to the gate to the Central Passport Office. He made a phone call and a lady escort came to the gate to pick us up. We simply followed her. She took us to the counter where a few young men stood.

A number of guards and other staffs were managing the applicants. More than one hundred people were sitting under the shade of green corrugated-plastic-sheet roof. They were waiting for their turn to come for submitting their applications.

None of the guards and staffs did ask us any questions nor they seemed to be surprised to see us hinting us that they knew someone of their colleagues escorted us. So, we were convinced that the money we paid for their service would go to the different people.

The lady escort took us to the counter where a young very smart lady processed our applicants apparently checking everything and sent the applications to the next lady working next to her but for the bank called the Global Bank where we paid the application fees. We received the receipt for the payment. It had the window number where we needed to pick up our MRPs next week. We understood that the fee we paid to the retiree for the service was well deserved.

We went to collect the MRPs at one o’clock following the notice but the actual distribution of MRPs started off only after 2 o’clock. Everybody should have received the MRPs following the number given on the receipt everybody had received at the time of paying the MRP fee but nobody was there to enforce this rule. We as the senior citizens got the priority of receiving the MRPs. The distributor of the MRPs seriously checked everything written on the MRP with the documents we had. MRP of my spouse came out one hundred percent correct; she got it but my MRP showed the last number of my handwritten passport wrong.

The man behind the counter distributing MRPs told me to go with the lady that carried my MRP and handwritten passport. So, I followed her. She took me to an office where I filled out a fresh application with the correct number of my handwritten passport. A lady checked my application and took me to a higher official. The official taking the documents for a fresh application for MRP told me that it was my mistake so I need to fill out a fresh application, and pay Rs 5,000 for processing the application. Again, I went to the counter where this time a young man checked my application form carefully and turned it over to the next lady for collecting the application fee. I came back with the documents and the receipt. The lady escort took me to the next office where such fresh applications were processed. The young official working at the office carefully took a look at my applications and asked me what went wrong; I told him that the last number of my handwritten passport went wrong. He told me to come to collect a MRP a day after.

I always checked everything twice and advised others to do the same so that nothing went wrong but this time I did not check the application forms trusting the young man filling out the application and the then the retiree checking all the documents apparently seriously; it was my mistake of trusting others. The young man working on the computer for filling out MRP forms and the retiree helping us to put every documents together had checked the forms so many times I was sure that I did not need to do the same again. However, it turned out that these guys including the smart lady working at the counter to receive the application forms at the Central Passport office had been pretending to check the applications forms. I became the victim of their apparently serious work but in reality they were just pretending. Thus, I learned a lesson of the need for double-checking anything I do at the cost of Rs 5,000 again.

We think that the government needs to make the private agencies filling out MRP forms official issuing them licenses and making them responsible for correct filing out the applications and the documents required for correct processing of the applications for MRPs so that thousands of applicants would not need to sail in the unknown territory of the processing of the applications for MRPs.

January 21, 2012