Saturday, 21 June 2014 00:00
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Stolen or lost passports should be immediately reported to the nearest Police Station and a copy be forwarded to the Controller General of Immigration & Emigration. Once the Department is informed of a stolen or lost passport through the police or a Sri Lankan Diplomatic Mission steps are immediately taken to cancel that passport, said Assistant Controller of the Department of Immigration & Emigration Jayaweera Fernando during the weekly press briefing held at the Media Centre in Colombo.
Once cancelled a passport cannot be used again for security reasons and for the owner’s own protection. Such passports cannot be reused as well as relevant details will be entered into the database of passports maintained by the Interpol.
New passports can be obtained by producing relevant documents and a penalty of Rs. 10,000 in addition to the due charges in case 10 years out of the validity period of the passport has not lapsed from its date of issue.
In an instance where the lost passport is found it should be returned to the Department which subsequently will take action to destroy it. Details of lost passports will be channelled to the National Central Bureau (NCB) of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) which will inform the Department of Immigration & Emigration.
When applying for a fresh passport the police report should be produced along with the application form.
