Seeking for a Visa? Must have applied for an Indian passport! Now confused about ECR or ECNR Passport? Here's all the required information you need to know regarding the ECR and ECNR Passport. According to the Emigration Act 1983, the Indian passport got divided into two categories-
1. ECR: Emigration Check Required
2. ECNR: Emigration Check Not Required
Now here's the question
what is the difference between ECNR and ECR passport? And how would you know, if your passport is ECNR or ECR? So here's all the required details you need to know in order to learn about those categories.
What are the ECR and ECNR Passport categories?
Basically, in order of your educational qualification, age and marital status, etc, your passport would be selected under either ECR or ECNR category.
1. ECR Categorised Passport
Emigration Check Required or ECR passport is actually issued for those Indians who have not qualified the 10th grade or matriculation examination.
And another point is that those Indians who have issued their passports before January 2007, if there's no notation then that falls under ECR categorised passport.
2. ECNR Categorised Passport
Emigration Check Not Required or Non-ECR or ECNR passport is only provided to those Indians who have qualified their 10th grade or matriculation examination or even more higher studies. And also the passports which are issued on or after January 2007, with no notation, always fall under the category of ECNR passport.
The basic thought behind this categorisation is based on the safety of the Indians under the legal conditions of other countries.
Certain countries which fall under ECR Categories: There is a list of 18 countries and if your passport falls under the ECR category, you have to qualify the emigration clearance, conducted by POE in order to get a chance for employment in those countries.
As per the Bureau of Immigration (BOI), those countries are:
● United Arab Emirates (UAE),
● The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA),
● Qatar
● Oman
● Kuwait
● Bahrain
● Malaysia
● Libya
● Jordan
● Yemen
● Sudan
● Afghanistan
● Sudan
● Indonesia
● Syria
● Lebanon
● Thailand
● Iraq (emigration banned) But if your purpose of travelling to the above-mentioned countries is other than employment, then there's no need to clear any emigration test.
Eligibility Criteria for ECNR Passport
There are some basic requirements for an Indian citizen to get the eligibility of an ECNR Passport holder. Those are:
- You have to be an official/diplomatic passport holder.
- You are eligible if you are an employee or officer of all the gazetted government sectors or spouse or children of them.
- Above the age of 50 years, individuals are also eligible. But children below 18 years need to be accompanied by their parents.
- You must have to be a regular income taxpayer.
- Any progressional degree holders like doctors, engineers (or even diploma in polytechnic), CA, nurses (or passed diploma in nursing under Indian Nursing Council Act-1947) and their spouses and children can apply easily.
- Those citizens whose occupation is related to Sea with Continuous
- Discharge Certificate or Sea Cadets and Deck cadets and those who had already spent more than 3 years overseas are also eligible.
How to apply for ECNR Passport
To apply for a Non-ECR passport all the citizens need to provide some important documents. Those are:
1. Firstly the applicant needs to fill the application form
(application-for-misc-services-Washington-dc.pdf, please add this) and submit it to the nearest embassy by himself or via an agent.
2. Then you need to pay an amount of Rs.300 for the submission.
3. You also need to submit the original valid passport
4. Then you need to provide two photocopies of the certificate that proves that you are eligible for an ECNR passport and an address proof with proper evidence.
5. Finally, you must submit two photocopies of the first four and last four pages of the passport that you are submitting along.
How to convert ECR to ECNR
Dear applicant, if you have already applied for the ECR passport, but you are eligible for ECNR passport, then firstly you need to reissue your passport online. Then you need to answer “yes” for the question “Are you eligible for the ECNR Passport?”. The next thing you have to do is to provide all the required documents including your certificate of 10th board qualification or qualification of matriculation examination or certificate of higher studies.
How to check passport category
The basic thing to check if your passport is ECNR or ECR is:
● If before January 1, 2007, you got your passport then that would contain an ECNR (Emigration Check Not Required) stamp in the inside page.
● For those passports which got issued on or after January 1, 2007, if they contain notation, then those are ECR and if they do not have any notation, those are Non-ECR by default.
How it works for the children
All children or minors below the age of 18 years are eligible to apply for ECNR passport till they reach the age of 18 years. After one attains 18 years, he/she must need to provide the proof or certificate of 10th board qualification or qualification of matriculation examination or certificate of higher education and then have to renew the passport.
Conclusion
Now hope you got all the desired information about what ECR and ECNR passports are. If you have any question regarding this, feel free to comment below or contact at: support@touristvisaonline.com.
