Indians seek easier process to include surname in passports
Community group gives memorandum to minister citing problems with rule
Indian expats have requested the Indian government to simplify the rules for adding the surname to passports bearing only the first name.
Representatives of a community group submitted a memorandum in this regard to India’s Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan during his three-day visit to the UAE last week.
Office bearers of the Indian Cultural Forum (ICF) Dubai submitted the memorandum.
“We took up this issue with the minister as there are huge procedural delays and around Dh3,000 in expenses in adding surname to a given name in some cases, especially in the case of Indian children born here,” Remesh T.R, chairman of ICF, told Gulf News.
What is the issue?
He said the issue came to light when many Indian expats with single names in their passports rushed to add their surnames last month after Indian airlines said they had been instructed not to fly passengers with only single names in their passports.
The rule was changed subsequently by allowing entry to passengers with visas issued in more than one name and those having their father’s or family names in the passport.
In the memorandum, ICF pointed out that in the case of some children born in the UAE, birth certificates were obtained with single names. Accordingly, passports were issued without a surname.
The memorandum pointed out that the current guidelines on ‘change of name’ were designed for newly wed or divorced women. According to ICF, it takes about two months to completing procedures to add the surname in many cases.
Simplify the procedure
Remesh said: “Our request is only to include the names already in one’s passport in place of the surname. Ideally, that should not require tedious
and expensive procedures involving multiple documents and attestation from various Indian and UAE departments and newspaper advertisements currently required for changing the name in the birth certificate and adding surname in passport,” .
Ramesh Mannath, president of ICF; Manikandan Meloth, patron, Radhakrishnan, secretary; Mini Manikandan, convenor; and Vijayan Nair were also present to submit the memorandum to the minister.
PBD volunteers honoured
Muraleedharan also honourned volunteers of Indian People’s Forum (IPF) UAE and FOI Events who played a pivotal role in arranging the highest number of NRI delegates to the recently concluded Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) NRI convention.
India hosted the 17th PBD event in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, earlier this month with a total of 3,000 NRI delegates from around the world. According to the Indian Consulate in Dubai, around 800 delegates from the UAE attended PBD — the highest from any country at any PBD event.