New Passport Rules 2026 For Indians: From Fee Hikes To Revised Validity For Children, Everything You Need To Know

If you've been putting off that passport renewal, it’s high time you paid attention to the news. The Ministry of External Affairs notified the Passports (Amendment) Rules, 2026 on September 15. According to the new instructions in the Official Gazette dated September 1, two major changes are coming into effect for Indian travellers: how long a child's passport stays valid, and how much you'll now pay for every passport service on offer.

The Big Change: How Long Your Kid's Passport Lasts

Under the new Rule 12(1A), a 36-page ordinary passport issued to a child under 15 is now valid for five years from the date of issue, or until the child turns 18, whichever comes first.

Basically, if you get your kid a passport at age ten, and you're covered until fifteen, the full five years. Does this mean that if you issue a passport at 17, it will become invalid at 18? Nope, and here's the trick. Teenagers between the ages of fifteen and eighteen can chose to have a passport that expires at eighteen, or opt for a full validity passport (ten years, like adults). So if your family books flights and hotels months out, check your child's passport expiry date before locking anything in. Plenty of countries want six months of validity left on arrival, and even a newly issued passport might already be cutting it close.

The Fee Hike

The fee hike technically kicked in back on July 1, but it's worth laying out clearly. For adults, a fresh or renewed 36-page passport now costs Rs 2,500, up from Rs 1,500. Want the 60-page version? That's Rs 3,500, up from Rs 2,000.

Should you need a passport on short notice, Tatkaal fees for adults have gone up too, landing at Rs 5,000 for the 36-page booklet and Rs 6,000 for the 60-page one. Lost or damaged your 60-page passport and need a Tatkaal replacement? That'll run you Rs 8,500.

Children aren't exempt either. A fresh or reissued 36-page passport for a minor now costs Rs 1,750, up from Rs 1,000, and the Tatkaal version for minors has jumped to Rs 4,250, up from Rs 3,000. One bit of good news in all this: a 10% discount applies to fresh applications for children under eight and senior citizens over 60, though it won't help on a reissue.

None of this is to stop anyone from travelling, but you now need to be more careful about yourt child's interview, and a child's passport can no longer be treated as a document you check once and forget. Pull up your kid's passport, check the issue date, work out when it expires, and budget the new fees before your next booking.