Passport Seva Kendra Kollam

The Consular, Passport and Visa (CPV) Division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) provides passport and consular services to Indian citizens through the Central Passport Organisation(CPO), and consular and visa services to foreign nationals and Indians residing overseas through the passport, visa and consular wings of Indian Missions and Posts abroad.

There are 37 Regional Passport Offices (RPOs)/Passport Offices (POs) under the CPO which deal with passport matters in India as per provisions of the Passport Act, 1967 and the Passport Rules, 1980 as amended from time to time. Besides the 37 RPOs/P.Os there are also 15 Passport Application Collection Centres (PACC), mostly located in remote areas. In addition, there are 495 District Passport Cells and 1154 Speed post centres which serve as application collection centres.

The CPV Division is headed by Joint Secretary (CPV). For passport related matters, he is assisted by Director(PV). Passport offices/ Regional Passport Offices are headed by Passport Officers (POs)/Regional Passport Officers (RPOs).

Given the changing demographic profile and economic liberalization, the number of passport seekers has been growing rapidly as seen from the illustration below. For instance, the number of passport seekers increased 133 times from 1958 to 2006