Joint Nepali Team Arrives in Portugal for E-Passport Applications

A joint team from the Department of Passport in Kathmandu and the Nepali Embassy in France has arrived in Portugal to collect applications for e-passports. The three-member team, led by Moti Bahadur Shreesh, Director of the Department of Passport, includes two officials from the Department and one from the Nepali Embassy in France. They arrived in Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, last Thursday.

The team has set up a mobile camp at a hall owned by the Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRN) in Portugal and began providing services last Friday. Director Shreesh shared that the number of service seekers has been increasing since the camp’s establishment. By last Friday, biometric details of 183 Nepalis in Portugal had been collected.

The service seekers include those whose passports have expired, those whose passports are due to expire in less than a month, those who have lost their passports, and those whose children were born in Portugal, among others.

With around 6,000 people having applied online for new passports, the mobile camp is expected to collect a similar number of applications this time. Director Shreesh emphasized that the team is delivering services efficiently and urged Nepalis in Portugal to visit the camp on the specified date and time. The camp will run through August 11.

The team has prioritized those who have applied online for passports. Depending on the need and workload, they will also try to provide emergency and urgent consular services during the ten-day mobile camp.

The camp is facilitated by the Honorary Consul of Nepal in Lisbon, NRN Portugal, and several active Nepali organizations in Portugal.