Although the primary ones are the four types, Nepal issues several types of travel documents to its citizens, with the main ones being represented by the color of the cover that identifies the official status of the holder or the particular purpose of the document, the total list of travel documents issued by the Department of Passport comprises the special-use and the temporary ones, making up the seven different categories.
1. Ordinary Passport
Ordinary
Passport is the most common traveling document granted to the innumerate
majority of Nepali citizens to undertake ordinary international traveling such
as tourism, personal business, study, and employment. The e-Passport version to
ordinary citizens has chocolate-brown cover, in lieu of the previously used
green cover of the older Machine Readable Passports (MRPs), and exists in
34-page and 66-page versions which are suitable to occasional and frequent
travelers respectively and is the main proof of nationality demanded by the
foreign governments.
2. Diplomatic Passport
Diplomatic
Passport is given to the very senior government officials who visit other
countries on behalf of the country. The cover is unique crimson-red. The usual
cover is composed of the President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Speakers of
Parliament, Federal Ministers and career Ambassadors/Heads of Diplomatic
Missions. This passport includes diplomatic immunity and special privileges of
the holder in international conventions.
3. Official / Service Passport
The
Official or Service Passport is issued to middle level government employees,
civil servants and other specified officials who are attending to International
travels representing the Government of Nepal in their official services, training
or assigning duties. The cover of this passport is navy-blue, making it clear
that the travel is done in an official, though not the complete diplomatic
passport of the red passport.
4. Peacekeeper's Passport
The
Nepali personnel deployed outside the country to work in the United Nations
Peacekeeping Operations are given a specialized passport. The cover of this
Peacekeeper is easily recognizable tiger-orange, and hence its name and the
particular color makes their movement easy and they are recognized as an
official undertaking their responsibilities with the law of the UN flag.
5. Travel Document
A
special purpose document is the Travel Document given to Nepali citizens
stranded abroad without an authentic passport, possibly lost, stolen, or
damaged, and require to return to Nepal as soon as possible. This is usually
issued with a black cover, is only single journey back to Nepal and is used in
emergency times as a temporary substitute to a complete passport.
6. Temporary Passport
The
other type has been cited to be associated with the new e-Passport scheme and
this is the Temporary Passport that could be issued in specific cases of urgent
and extraordinary situations and usually had a very short period of validity.
This has a cover of chocolate-brown, just like Ordinary Passport, but it is
different because of the situations under which it is issued and limited
time-span, which are as chiefly an immediate-travelling authority.
7. Seaman's Record Book
Finally, the Seaman is a special document that serves as an
identity and employment certificate to work aboard the ships as a formal
document to the citizens of Nepal who work in the global maritime industry. It
is a slate-brown-covered book (not a general-purpose passport) that sailors
must have to help them enter or leave the port and secure a visa when they are
aboard several international vessels.
