Passport extension no longer available

The passport extension service has been decommissioned after January 2, announced the General Authority of State Registration and Intellectual Property.

In other words, passport holders will be required to apply for renewal after their passport expires.

The government approved the suspension of the passport extension service through Resolution No.94 on Amendments to the Annex, dated March 20, 2017. The decree hadn’t been made effective until this year as the General Authority of State Registration and Intellectual Property didn’t have sufficient passport templates to accommodate the expected increase in demand.

At the time, specialists analyzed that the authority would fail to continue passport renewal services from January to March in 2018 if it canceled passport extension services in April. It was reported that the authority received financing to purchase only 250,000 regular passport templates in the year of 2017 from the state budget.

The authority reported that as of December 25, it provided travel passports to 336,550 people, renewed 237,770 passports, and extended 98,780 passports. By the end of December, 116,000 regular passport templates were available at the General Authority of State Registration and Intellectual Property, ensuring its normal operations after the enactment of the resolution to decommission passport extension services.