Responding to surging summer-holiday demand and complaints about four-week appointment backlogs, the Regional Passport Office (RPO) Pune has announced a special passport issuance drive at its Pune and Solapur Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) on Saturday, 11 July 2026. The Ministry of External Affairs initiative aims to release several hundred additional appointment slots for both Normal and Tatkaal (expedited) categories between 09:00 and 17:00. Applicants must complete the usual online application and payment process via the Passport India portal or the mPassport Seva app, then select the special-drive date when scheduling. Officials warn that Tatkaal applicants should review eligibility carefully; incomplete documentation or ineligible cases will be rejected at the counter, defeating the purpose of the expedited channel. Under Tatkaal, passports can be issued within three working days after police verification, subject to stricter documentary proof such as two government photo-IDs and a verification certificate.
![Pune Regional Passport Office to hold one-day ‘Tatkaal & Normal’ passport drive on 11 July]()
Once applicants have their new passports in hand, many will quickly turn to the next hurdle—securing visas. VisaHQ’s India portal can take over at this stage, allowing travelers and corporate mobility teams to check requirements, upload documents, and track consular processing for dozens of destinations in one place, ensuring the time saved in the passport queue doesn’t get lost in visa paperwork.
For corporates, the drive offers welcome relief. Pune is a major hub for the automotive, IT-services and biotech sectors, and HR teams have struggled to secure fresh passports for new hires earmarked for overseas client assignments. Failure to obtain a passport often cascades into missed visa slots at foreign missions, particularly the US Consulate in Mumbai, where H-1B and L-1 appointments are booking out six months ahead. RPO officials indicate that similar Saturday drives will be replicated in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai later in July if the Pune event clears a significant portion of the backlog. Mobility managers should track local PSA social-media channels, as appointment windows typically open without prior notice and fill within minutes. The passport drive also dovetails with India’s broader push to digitise citizen services: from September 2026 the MEA plans to roll out DigiLocker integration, allowing verification of Aadhaar-seeded documents in real time, which could shave several minutes off each counter interaction and further expand daily appointment capacity.
Once applicants have their new passports in hand, many will quickly turn to the next hurdle—securing visas. VisaHQ’s India portal can take over at this stage, allowing travelers and corporate mobility teams to check requirements, upload documents, and track consular processing for dozens of destinations in one place, ensuring the time saved in the passport queue doesn’t get lost in visa paperwork.
For corporates, the drive offers welcome relief. Pune is a major hub for the automotive, IT-services and biotech sectors, and HR teams have struggled to secure fresh passports for new hires earmarked for overseas client assignments. Failure to obtain a passport often cascades into missed visa slots at foreign missions, particularly the US Consulate in Mumbai, where H-1B and L-1 appointments are booking out six months ahead. RPO officials indicate that similar Saturday drives will be replicated in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai later in July if the Pune event clears a significant portion of the backlog. Mobility managers should track local PSA social-media channels, as appointment windows typically open without prior notice and fill within minutes. The passport drive also dovetails with India’s broader push to digitise citizen services: from September 2026 the MEA plans to roll out DigiLocker integration, allowing verification of Aadhaar-seeded documents in real time, which could shave several minutes off each counter interaction and further expand daily appointment capacity.
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