Tuesday 05 / May / 2026
Muscat: Passport services at the Embassy of Pakistan in Muscat have been restored, bringing relief to thousands of expatriates across the Sultanate.
Confirming the development, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Oman, Syed Naveed Safdar Bokhari, said that all passport-related services — including renewal and issuance — will resume from Wednesday, May 6, 2026, during designated office hours.
“Applicants can now visit the embassy to process their passport applications,” he said, adding that no prior appointment is required. “There are no appointments. It’s a walk-in system. We issue tokens and handle more than 100 applications per day.”
Passport services had been suspended since April 29 due to a technical fault at headquarters in Islamabad, disrupting operations at Pakistani missions worldwide, including Muscat.
The outage left hundreds of overseas Pakistanis struggling with travel, visa and residency requirements, with embassies and consulates across the Gulf — including the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — affected.
With services now restored, applicants are advised to visit the embassy during official working hours.
Passport application timings are from 8am to 2pm and the passport collection timings from 1pm to 4pm.
The announcement comes as a major relief for expatriates in the Gulf, where timely passport renewals are critical for employment, visa processing and travel.
According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), there were 290,816 Pakistani expatriates in Oman as of the end of March 2026.
They are primarily employed in sectors such as construction, oil and gas, healthcare, education and hospitality, spanning both skilled and unskilled roles.
