The government had decided to procure around 700,000 passports from ‘IN Smart Identity France SAS’, previously known as IDEMIA Identity and Security France SAS, to cover the looming shortage after December until new supplies arrive. A Cabinet meeting on Friday made the decision.

The French vendor had been providing machine-readable passports (MRPs) and e-passports (biometric) to Nepal since 2010 and until mid-2025.

The ‘IN Group’ recently took over IDEMIA.

Government spokesman and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Jagadish Kharel said that the Cabinet meeting has authorised the Department of Passports to purchase 700,000 electronic passports from IN Group through a variation order.

With the contract with IDEMIA, which has been providing biometric passports to Nepal since November 2021, expiring at the end December, and two German companies scheduled to start supplying passports only after March, the government faced a shortage. The Department of Passports has fewer than 160,000 ordinary passports in stock, which will meet the requirement only until December.

The new batch of passports, as per the new agreement with IN Smart Identity, will arrive within three weeks, the department said in a notice after signing of the contract on Friday. With this, the department will have enough passports in stock to meet the demand from December to March until the two German firms—Veridos GmbH and Muehlbauer ID Service Gmb—begin their supply.

Amid looming passport shortage, the department had significantly reduced the number of daily applications it accepts to 1,000—down from the usual 6,000. “Now the daily application quota will gradually increase,” an official at the department said.

The department will also arrange manpower to ensure that citizens get services hassle-free.

Likewise, the department will start sending passport copies to Nepali missions abroad within two weeks, and applications from district and area administration offices will also be processed smoothly, the department’s notice said.

IN Smart Identity will provide passports at $10.13 per copy, a local representative of the company told the Post. “We accepted Nepal government’s request and, due to our one-and-a-half-decade-long service here, we have decided to supply passports during this difficult time.”

Besides the passport deal, IN Smart Identity will also replace 20 enrollment systems destroyed during the Gen Z movement and compensate for another 56,000 passports destroyed, the representative told the Post.

Prime Minister Suhsila Karki personally led negotiations with outgoing French and incoming German firms to secure passports to ensure that shortages would not disrupt parliament elections scheduled for March 5.

“Through the special initiative of Prime Minister Karki, the passport crisis has been resolved,” a statement issued by the prime minister’s private secretariat said. “With the signing of an agreement to purchase 700,000 new electronic passports from the previous French supplier firm at the same price—without any increase—the situation in which service seekers had to wait indefinitely has now come to an end.”

“Earlier, due to stock running out and the inability to arrange an alternative supply, the Department of Passports had limited distribution to only one thousand passports per day… causing significant difficulties for the public,” reads the statement.

During this period, Prime Minister Karki had also summoned and held discussions with the German ambassador and officials from the related company, reads the statement further.

Veridos, the German government-backed security printing company contracted to supply Nepal with next-generation e-MRTDs, is legally required to begin delivery within 240 days of contract signing—setting the deadline at March 29, 2026.

However, in light of the looming shortage, the company has agreed to begin supply ahead of schedule.

A local representative of Veridos told the Post that its Vice President Fabiolla Bellersheim visited Kathmandu from November 16-18 for a series of high-level discussions. The Group CEO of IDEMIA Antione Grenier also visited Kathmandu and held talks with Prime Minister Karki.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and passport department were also holding discussions with Veridos focussing on contingency plans for an interim arrangement for passports in case IN Smart Identity and passports department failed to reach an agreement.

According to a source familiar with the talks, Veridos “objectively advised” the passport department to procure emergency passports from IN Smart Identity, describing it as the only logical and technically feasible option.

“As IN Smart Identity owns and operates the existing system and personalisation infrastructure,” the source said, “it would be virtually impossible for a new vendor to integrate its passports into another company’s system on short notice.”

Senior officials at the passport department have also expressed concern about IN Smart Identity’s cooperation during the transition to the new system. “We are concerned over IN Smart Identity’s intent in the transition phase, as any intentional delay in integrating data could push back project implementation,” one senior official said.

“Given IN Smart Identity’s difficult positioning during discussions on emergency passports, one cannot rule out attempts to complicate the transition for the new vendor. However, the passport department can take legal and financial measures to prevent any disruption.”

With emergency passport orders now secured, the DoP’s immediate priority is clearing backlogs and ensuring citizens can obtain new passports without further delays. Officials say the focus is also shifting from crisis response to preparing for the timely rollout of the new system in the spring of 2026. The German vendors are scheduled to go live with their upgraded systems in March 2026.

Passport department officials expressed optimism about the transition, noting that after more than a decade of collaboration with the French firm, Nepal is now entering a “new era” with German companies renowned for their technical competence. “We look forward to this German collaboration marking a new chapter in Nepal’s passport supply chain,” one official said.

“We signed the contract with IN Smart Identity on Friday,” Tirtha Raj Aryal, director general at the passport department told the Post. “We estimate the current supply to meet our requirement till May. Before that we will switch the system whereby German firms will start providing the passports.”