The Regional Passport Office in Lucknow has announced a special passport-issuance drive on 10 October aimed at students and young professionals planning to study or work overseas. Under the campaign, titled “Passport First, Opportunities Next”, additional appointment slots will open at Passport Seva Kendras in Lucknow, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Varanasi, with bookings available from 6 October via the Passport Seva portal. The initiative responds to a post-pandemic surge in outbound Indian mobility: nearly 1.4 million students are currently enrolled at foreign universities, and Uttar Pradesh accounts for a growing share of that cohort. By extending Saturday operating hours and dedicating counters to first-time applicants, the RPO expects to process more than 6,000 extra applications in a single day—equivalent to a week’s normal volume. For corporates, the drive is an opportunity to encourage campus-hire and trainee populations to secure travel documents early, reducing last-minute delays to overseas onboarding. Employers sponsoring H-1B, UK Skilled Worker or Australia Subclass 482 visas often face bottlenecks when graduates discover their passports have less than six months’ validity or contain data errors. Companies can circulate the appointment link and reimburse the ₹1,500 application fee as part of pre-employment assistance. The event also showcases the government’s push to modernise consular services under Passport Seva 2.0, which will roll out chip-enabled e-passports from November. Applicants attending the 10 October drive will have their biometric templates captured in a format that can be ported to the new booklet once their current document expires, according to officials. If the pilot is successful, the Ministry of External Affairs plans to replicate the model in other high-demand states ahead of the January-March university-application season, potentially easing the nationwide appointment crunch that left many students scrambling this time last year.
Source: The Times of India
