The Passport Seva Portal, the backbone of passport services in India, has been experiencing significant and widespread disruptions over the past two days, leaving thousands of passport applicants nationwide facing lengthy delays, sudden appointment cancellations, and immense frustration. The technical snag, which began on Thursday and continued through Friday, has crippled operations at Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) across the country, drawing sharp criticism from a multitude of distressed citizens.
Reports from various cities, including Delhi, Bhopal, Thane, Mumbai, and Pune, paint a chaotic picture. Applicants who had meticulously planned their visits, sometimes months in advance, arrived at PSKs only to find shuttered gates, unhelpful staff, or printed notices announcing service suspensions due to technical issues. The lack of prior communication, with many receiving cancellation alerts only at midnight or not at all, has exacerbated the public’s anger.
Social media platforms, particularly X (formerly Twitter), have become a hotbed of grievances. Users are venting their frustration over wasted time, disrupted travel plans, and the apparent lack of clear information from the Ministry of External Affairs or the official Passport Seva handles.
“Had an appointment for passport 2morrow morning for my kids and 2nd time in 2 months they asked to reschedule the appointment due to technical issues @passportsevamea. At 12.00 am we received the msg and they want people to stay here.. Their aap too is not working.. Useless ppl,” tweeted one exasperated user, Mehul Kothari, highlighting the repeated nature of these issues.
Another applicant, Vidya Nand Rai, shared a photo of a notice pasted on a locked PSK gate, lamenting, “@passportsevamea @MEAIndia @DrSJaishankar The passport seva kendra pasted a notice due to a technical issue unable to process a request. No SMS, email or ph call regarding this to applicant…even people came to reach only after seva kendra. Gate is locked & no one is available.” This lack of proactive communication has been a recurring complaint, forcing applicants to undertake unnecessary travel and bear unforeseen costs.
The disruptions are having severe implications for those with urgent travel needs. Families planning international trips, students awaiting visas for foreign universities, and business professionals with crucial overseas commitments are finding their plans in jeopardy. Rahul Sharma, who had applied for his son’s passport for an upcoming trip to the US, expressed his dismay: “The last-minute cancellation of my passport appointment is putting our trip to the US next year in serious trouble. I had applied for my son’s passport so we could all attend my daughter’s graduation, but without it I can’t even begin the visa process. With long US visa wait times, the delays make it very difficult to plan anything.”
This is not an isolated incident. The Passport Seva Portal has faced similar server outages in the recent past, with a comparable breakdown occurring in April that halted services nationwide for two consecutive days. While the Ministry of External Affairs has previously stated that they are undertaking a phased migration to “Passport Seva Programme V2.0” to provide “the next level of citizen experiences using latest and upgraded technology,” these recurring outages raise serious questions about the stability and resilience of the current system.
As of Friday afternoon, neither the Ministry of External Affairs nor the official Passport Seva account on X had issued a public statement addressing the widespread outage or providing an estimated timeline for service restoration. This silence has further fueled public anger and uncertainty.
Applicants are now left in limbo, unsure when they will be able to reschedule their appointments, with many reporting that new dates are unavailable for weeks, even months. The ongoing technical woes underscore the critical need for a robust and reliable digital infrastructure to support essential citizen services, as countless individuals continue to bear the brunt of these debilitating disruptions.