New Delhi: Passengers travelling on international flights from India will no longer be required to carry a physical boarding pass and get it stamped at immigration counters from September 1.
The Bureau of Immigration has communicated the decision to all stakeholders, including international airport operators and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Hindustan Times reported.
An internal communication, issued by Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) in Delhi Deepak Yadav, has been reviewed by HT. It states that the mandatory requirement of producing a physical boarding pass and getting it stamped by an immigration officer will be discontinued at all international airports in India from next month.
The move is aimed to make immigration clearance process more convenient.
The current process, requiring passengers to produce physical boarding passes, was not only inconvenient, errors in reading boarding passes due to improper or incorrect stamping had also been reported.
The Bureau of Immigration pointed out that passengers may produce their e-boarding passes at the Immigration counters for clearance. “It may be clarified that physical boarding passes will continue to be accepted at the Immigration counters.. however, these will not be stamped,” it added.