Indian passports starting with letter "Z" - Never heard this before !!!

[whatsup]

Hello there !

I have been a silent follower of this forum for a long time, with a few topics from my end.

I am an Indian living in Dubai.

This morning a colleague of mine from my office, had visited the Canadian embassy in Abu Dhabi to apply for a visit visa to Canada.  He just told me that the embassy informed him that as his Indian passport number starts with the letter "Z", it would not be accepted by the embassy to process the visa.  He was shocked to hear this and so am I. 

As per the embassy, it seems all Indian passports starting with letter "Z" are having some problem and therefore, it would not be accepted.  He is in a fix now and plans to go to the Indian consulate in Dubai to find out about this.

This has raised alarms for me, as I have applied for my PR to Canada in Jan 2010, with my 2nd AOR in August from London and my Indian passport starts with "Z".  I am worried now if they will reject the process.

Has anyone been in this situation or heard of the above.  Please share.

Thank you

Regards,
Whatsup

[vaibhavvd]

Buddy,

there was a news/rumor going on a few months back about the manipulation of Indian passports starting with Z alphabet. This blame was placed on passports issued/renewed in GCC. Precisely that is the reason Cad embassy would have declined issuing visit visa to your friend.

Check this out with Indian embassy/consulate at the earliest.

-Vaibhav

[Ali Haidar]

hi, i remember ...around 8 months back i read the same news about passports starting with letter z , i think this notice was from USA embassy , may be some fake passports has been issued or something else ....but it is true there was  a news and i don't remember the source, so its better to change the passport....to avoid delays

[Sans_May2010]

Mine is also Z series Indian passport. Its not issued from GCC, but from Cochin.

Do you think this can cause any problem at the time of visa issuance?

Thanks, Sans_May2010

[Sans_May2010]

I could see from the web that Indian passports in Z Series (Z-000001 to Z-045925) are recalled. This happened in 2008.

If you are highlighting a different story. please post it here.

I am sure most passports are issued in Z Series now. Mine was issued last year November and Falls in Z Series which starts Z192XXXX

Sans_May2010

Hello there !

I have been a silent follower of this forum for a long time, with a few topics from my end.

I am an Indian living in Dubai.

This morning a colleague of mine from my office, had visited the Canadian embassy in Abu Dhabi to apply for a visit visa to Canada.  He just told me that the embassy informed him that as his Indian passport number starts with the letter "Z", it would not be accepted by the embassy to process the visa.  He was shocked to hear this and so am I. 

As per the embassy, it seems all Indian passports starting with letter "Z" are having some problem and therefore, it would not be accepted.  He is in a fix now and plans to go to the Indian consulate in Dubai to find out about this.

This has raised alarms for me, as I have applied for my PR to Canada in Jan 2010, with my 2nd AOR in August from London and my Indian passport starts with "Z".  I am worried now if they will reject the process.

Has anyone been in this situation or heard of the above.  Please share.

Thank you

Regards,
Whatsup

[gagansingh]

Hello there !

I have been a silent follower of this forum for a long time, with a few topics from my end.

I am an Indian living in Dubai.

This morning a colleague of mine from my office, had visited the Canadian embassy in Abu Dhabi to apply for a visit visa to Canada.  He just told me that the embassy informed him that as his Indian passport number starts with the letter "Z", it would not be accepted by the embassy to process the visa.  He was shocked to hear this and so am I. 

As per the embassy, it seems all Indian passports starting with letter "Z" are having some problem and therefore, it would not be accepted.  He is in a fix now and plans to go to the Indian consulate in Dubai to find out about this.

This has raised alarms for me, as I have applied for my PR to Canada in Jan 2010, with my 2nd AOR in August from London and my Indian passport starts with "Z".  I am worried now if they will reject the process.

Has anyone been in this situation or heard of the above.  Please share.

Thank you

Regards,
Whatsup

this is strange....never heard of this before from anyone....

[Pippin]

 A Google search comes up with a number of links.  The one below was from the Indian Embassy, Berne, Switzerland.  There is no date on the document.
Government of India has issued instructions that all Indian Passports with serial numbers Z-000001 to Z-045925 are to be recalled and new passport issued in their place. Above includes 122 Passports (Z-009351 to Z-009472) issued by Embassy of India, Berne between October 2006 and September, 2007

Holders of those passports are requested to kindly approach the Embassy at their conveniences and return their passports as well as submit fresh applications with two photographs (3.5 cm x 3.5 cm) using and filling up the application on line by visiting Embassy's website  www.indembassybern.ch  

The following points may please be noted:-

New passports will be issued for the remaining validity of the old one.

No fee is to be deposited by the applicant.

Since new passport is Machine Readable Passport and written in India, a period between 4 and 6 weeks is required for its issue.

[shibuya]

Contact consulate.

[whatsup]

Thank you all for your responses.

Shibuya has clarified a lot by posting links on another post showing the details of this Z series passort problem, which is not to all , but just to a certain numbers.

My colleague visited the Empost office today (Empost deals with accepting passport applications here in Dubai) and it seems that they just accepted to change his passport, because it was a Z series number, although it did not fall into the specific numbers mentioned in the link given by Shibuya.

As per my colleague, he showed his passport and informed his challenges at the Canadian Embassy yesterday and they just accepted to change it without any fee.

He is now due to get his new passport in 3 working days.

I will try calling the consulate myself to verify and will inform all of you on what the consulate says.

Thank you
Regards,
Whatsup