New Delhi. The Ministry of External Affairs has made a major change in the passport rules of children. Now the 36-page ordinary passport for children below 15 years of age will remain valid till the age of 18 years or 5 years from the date of issue. That means the age of 5 years or 18 years, whichever comes first, will be the final limit of validity. If the child turns 18 before completion of 5 years, the validity of the passport will expire at that time. Earlier the validity age of passport was 15 years.

New rule published in gazette

The Ministry of External Affairs has published the Passport Rules Amendment Rules, 2026 in the Gazette of India on 17 September. Through this, the passport rules of 1980 have been changed.

Understand the new rule by example

According to the old rule, if a child got a passport at the age of 15 years or less, then his passport remained valid till the age of 5 years or 15 years. Suppose a child got a passport at the age of 14, then its validity would remain only till the age of 15 and the benefit of validity of 5 years would not be available.

According to the new rule, if a child gets a passport at the age of 15 years or less, then his passport will now remain valid till the age of 18 years. Suppose a child gets a passport made at the age of 14 years, then its validity will remain till the age of 18 years and here also the benefit of 5 years validity will not be available.

10 percent discount continues

Children below 8 years of age and senior citizens above 60 years of age will continue to get 10 percent discount on new passport applications. However, this exemption will not be available on re-issue of passport. Despite the increase in children's passport fees, 10 percent discount on new passport applications will continue. The new fee arrangement also includes services like tatkal service, renewal, replacement of lost or damaged passport and police clearance certificate in addition to the normal passport.