Progress and functions of the department
History of progress
o 1962 Established as a directorate and started issuing passports to passport candidates from all over Bangladesh from only one passport office in Dhaka.
o 1973 The journey of the Department of Immigration and Passports started from the Directorate as a full-fledged department. The department started its activities with 5 regional passport offices in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna.
o Creation of 4 more Regional Passport Offices under the control of the Department at Rangpur, Mymensingh, Comilla and Barisal in 1981.
o 1998 Creation of 3 new regional passport offices with manpower in Noakhali, Faridpur and Jessore. Creation of a Visa Cell for issuance of On Arrival Visa at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka.
o 2001 Creation of Regional Passport Offices Habiganj, Gopalganj and Sirajganj in 2016.
o 2010 Introduction of Machine Readable Passport (MRP) and Machine Readable Visa (MRV). Creation of Personalization Center, Data Center at Head Office and Disaster Recovery Center at Jessore. In the first phase, MRP and MRV activities will be implemented in 34 Divisional Passport and Visa Offices / Regional Passport Offices and 7 Visa Cells and 33 Immigration Checkposts.

o Successfully launched MRP activities in the remaining 33 districts across the country from 2011 to 2015. Implementation of MRP and MRV programs in 65 Bangladesh embassies. At present, citizens of all districts of the country are able to receive MRP from the passport office established in their respective districts.

o Creation of 4 new passport offices in Dhaka 2018. Among them, Passport Office, Dhaka Cantonment as the 7th office of the department was inaugurated on 01 December 2016 and Passport Office, Bangladesh Secretariat was inaugurated on 6 April 2017 as the 69th office.

Achievements of the Department
o Issuance of MRP from a total of 69 offices in 7 divisions and 64 districts within the country and issuance of MRV from 7 divisional passport and visa offices.
o Establishment of Passport and Visa Wing in 65 embassies abroad and provision of MRP and MRV by deploying manpower of the Department in Passport and Visa Wing in 15 embassies.
o The overall activities of Data Center, Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) and Passport Personalization Center have been implemented and all passport information is stored in DRC.
o Establish on-line connectivity for on-line verification of national identity card information of passport applicants.
o Provide information regarding passport distribution to MRP applicants through emergency services.
o Establishment of on-line connectivity to complete on-line police verification activities in 70 SB / DSB offices.
o Establish connectivity of all Immigration Checkposts (ICPs) of the country with the Central Data Center of the Department.
o Provide MRP to expatriate Bangladeshis in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, UAE through outsourcing.
o Receive MRP fee on-line through Bank Asia, Premier Bank, Trust Bank, Dhaka Bank and One Bank.
o Launch Facebook page for each regional office and organize social media chat.
o Citizens have the opportunity to easily include their information in the passport application as they have the facility to fill up the form online.
o Successfully celebrate Passport Service Week every year since 2016, through which Passport Services has become more advanced.

Implementation in progress
o Project proposal for introduction of e-passport has been sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
o The process of setting up 2 more passport offices in Dhaka is underway.
o Construction of Personalization Complex with state-of-the-art information technology facilities is underway.
o The proposal to deploy manpower of the department in 10 embassies is under consideration in the Ministry of Public Administration.
o Considering the convenience of the citizens, the decision to extend the validity of MRP passport from 5 years to 10 years is in process.
o Proposal to increase the existing manpower from 1184 to 4 (four) thousand is under consideration.
o Regional Passport Offices are under construction in 16 districts.
o Proposal for construction of own building of Immigration and Passport Training Center is under process.