Soon, no need for physical boarding cards at immigration

India to End Physical Boarding Pass Stamping at Immigration Counters from September 1

Starting September 1, international travelers departing from India will no longer have their physical boarding passes stamped at immigration counters. Instead, they can present digital boarding passes on their smartphones, according to a directive from the Delhi Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).

The directive, issued by Senior FRRO (Delhi) Deepak Yadav, instructs international airport operators, airlines, and security personnel to phase out the practice across all international departure points nationwide. While physical boarding passes will still be accepted, immigration officers will no longer apply rubber ink stamps to them.

The change follows an internal review by the Bureau of Immigration (BOI) under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. The review found that the stamping process caused inconvenience to passengers and led to errors in reading boarding passes due to improper or incorrect stamping. As one official stated, "The matter has been examined by the BOI and it has now been decided to do away with the mandatory requirement of physical boarding passes and the stamping of boarding passes at immigration counters at all international airports in the country."

Yadav elaborated on the rationale, noting, "It has, however, been observed that this process causes inconvenience to passengers, and instances of errors in reading boarding passes due to improper or incorrect stamping, have also been reported." Authorities also noted that "improper or incorrect" physical ink stamps routinely smeared or obscured critical barcodes, creating reading errors at final boarding gates.

The move aligns immigration protocols with security procedures already in place. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) ended its practice of stamping physical boarding passes at security checkpoints several years ago.

Airport authorities and international air carriers are updating operational briefs to ensure staff are fully transitioned ahead of the September 1 rollout.

In a related development, Junior Minister for External Affairs KV Singh told Parliament this month that the authentication of e-chip passports and their integration with the IVFRT (immigration, visa, foreigners' registration and tracking) application for use at international airports in India is under process. This is seen as a step toward more seamless international travel once e-passports become more common.