Bangladeshi passport

The passport of Bangladesh is an ICAO compliant, machine-readable and biometric e-passport issued for the purpose of travel to foreign countries by the passport holder. Bangladesh is the first country in South Asia to issue e-passports for all eligible citizens. The passport booklet is manufactured, printed and issued by the Department of Immigration and Passports of the Ministry of Home Affairs. This electronic microprocessor chip embedded e-passport has forty-one different security features, including holographic images embossed in thin-film laminate, which change colour under light and appear to move. Demographic and biometric information of the e-passport holder are stored on the chip inside the e-passport. This information includes the fingerprints of all ten fingers of the passport holder; the iris scan of both eyes; a color photograph of the face of the bearer; their digital signature, etc. Depending on the age of the applicant, the e-passport is valid for either five years or ten years and it is distributed by the Government of The People's Republic of Bangladesh, or by any of its overseas diplomatic missions, to eligible Bangladeshi nationals who are citizens by birth, by descent or through naturalization.
The Government of Bangladesh issues three different types of passports. These are Diplomatic passports with a red cover; Official passports with a blue cover; and regular or ordinary passports with a green cover. The cover of the passport is made of a tear-proof textile material that is chemical, sweat, damp and heat resistant. Diplomatic passports are only issued to diplomats of Bangladesh. Official passports are only issued to Bangladesh government employees, government officials and envoys. Regular or ordinary passports are issued to the rest of the citizens of Bangladesh. The entire passport is made of environment-friendly materials. It is aesthetically designed with all the blank visa pages of the passport covered in images of important historical landmarks and buildings of Bangladesh, as well as popular Bangladeshi tourist attractions, with their names written in both Bengali and English. Page numbers of the passport are also bilingual – written both in Bengali and in English.
History.
After the Bangladesh Liberation War, Act Number 9 of 1973 (called The Bangladesh Passport Order, 1973) which was signed into law by the President of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, on 8 February 1973, lead to the creation and issuing of the first passport of newly independent Bangladesh. These passport booklets were traditional, handwritten or manual, passports and were compliant with the relevant international laws and regulations in force at the time. Subsequently, additional laws were enacted in the years that followed to improve the passport application process; enforce the ineligibility to hold multiple valid Bangladeshi passports; citizenship requirement for a passport; etc.
Prior to the e-passport and the machine-readable passport, the Department of Immigration & Passports of the Government of Bangladesh used to issue traditional handwritten or manual passports. In 2010, the Government of Bangladesh announced a plan to replace over 6.6 million handwritten passports with new biometric machine-readable passports. Following the guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the Bangladesh government started issuing machine-readable passports (MRP) and machine-readable visas (MRV) in April 2010. However, all traditional handwritten passports were honored as bona fide Bangladesh government-issued travel documents until their expiration date. All traditional handwritten passports were successfully withdrawn from circulation before ICAO's international deadline of November 2015.
In 2016, the Government of Bangladesh announced its plans to issue e-passports, which the then Home Minister hoped would ease immigration, travel and visa procedures for Bangladesh passport holders. The new Bangladeshi e-passport is provided in collaboration with a German company along with fifty e-gates at all major ports of entry. Machine-readable passports are being phased out gradually. E-passports will completely replace all machine-readable passports. However, all machine-readable passports are bona fide and valid travel documents until the expiry date written in them.
Bangladesh has taken another significant step in its digital transformation with the much-anticipated launch of electronic passports or e-passports. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the distribution of e-passports at an event in the capital's Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on Wednesday, 22 January 2020. Bangladesh is the first country in South Asia and the 119th country in the world to issue an e-passport for all eligible citizens.
Types of passports.
The Government of Bangladesh issues three different types of passports nowadays. These are Diplomatic, Official and regular or ordinary passports.
Bangladeshi passports issued since April 2010 are all biometric and machine-readable passports.
Passport fees.
E-passport fees in Bangladeshi taka, including all taxes, are as follows:
Emergency delivery is only available for passport reissue applicants. The applicable 15% VAT is included in all the fees shown above. Unlike traditional handwritten or manual passports, e-passports and machine-readable passports are not renewed. Instead, the old passport is cancelled and a new passport is issued in its place. This procedure is called "reissue" by the Department of Immigration and Passports.
Machine Readable Passport (MRP) fees in Bangladeshi taka, excluding tax, are as follows:
15% VAT is applicable on all fees. For the renewal (reissue) of an expired passport, an annual fine of Tk 345 (tax included) is applicable for each year after expiry. Passport fees can be paid in cash at any of the following banks in Bangladesh:
The fees can be paid online as well, using a credit card, debit card, or a mobile phone. Bangladeshi mobile financial services such as bKash or DBBL Nexus (Rocket) can also be used to make payments for passport fees, especially e-passport fees.
Physical appearance.
Bangladeshi passport covers are dark green, with the Seal of the Government of Bangladesh emblazoned in gold in the centre of the front cover. The word "পাসপোর্ট" (Bengali) and "Passport" (English) are inscribed above the Seal. Below the Seal "গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ" (Bengali); "People's Republic of Bangladesh" (English); and the international e-passport symbol () are inscribed. The standard Bangladesh passport contains 48 pages, however, frequent travellers can opt for a passport containing 64 pages.  
Passport note.
The inside cover contains the date and place of issuance of the passport as well as the declaration of the President, addressing the authorities of all other states, identifying the bearer as a citizen of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and requesting that he or she be allowed to pass without hindrance and be treated as per international law. The note inside of the Bangladeshi passports states:
In Bengali:
In English:
Languages.
The text and page numbers of Bangladeshi passports are printed in both Bengali and English. However, before machine readable passports were introduced, older passports were written in Bengali, English and French language.
Passport holder identity.
Information about the passport holder is stored on the embedded microprocessor chip in the passport. It is also shown on the biographical page and in page one of the Bangladesh e-passport. The field names, such as name, are written in Bengali (Bangla) and English, with the field values being written in English only. Information regarding faith or occupation is not printed.
The inside cover of a Bangladeshi e-passport has an embossed image of the National Martyrs Mausoleum, with Amar Shonar Bangla, the national anthem of Bangladesh, written in Bengali.
The pre-first page is a chip-enabled plastic card that contains the President's declaration and states that the passport is valid for all the countries in the world except Israel. The back of the pre-first page is the main data page. It contains all the important information. The information printed includes:
More information regarding the passport holder is encoded using optical character recognition and can only be read by a passport reader. The first page contains additional information in English such as parents' name, spouse's name, emergency contact name and number etc. It also contains the passport number printed on the page. This page contains the following information of the bearer: 
All information is printed in English using a dot matrix printer and, in the case of the machine readable passport, it is then signed by the appropriate officer of the issuing authority. In the newly issued e-passport, it is laser printed and authenticated with a QR code. Inside the back cover of the e-passport an embossed image of the Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, National Parliament of Bangladesh, is displayed with a quotation in English by Louis I Kahn, who is the architect of the complex.
Visa requirements.
 Bangladeshi citizens who hold regular or ordinary Bangladeshi passports have visa free or visa on arrival access to 41 countries and territories, ranking the Bangladeshi passport 94th in terms of travel freedom (tied with passports from Lebanon, Libya and South Sudan) according to the Henley Passport Index. Bangladeshi citizens who hold Diplomatic passports and/or Official passports of Bangladesh have visa free or visa on arrival access to many more countries. The passport is valid for travel to all countries of the world except Israel, with which there are no diplomatic relations as yet. Earlier, Bangladeshi passports were also not valid to travel to Taiwan, Rhodesia and South Africa but that has long changed.