Two official systems among the destinations Indians apply to most will look you up from a passport number, and neither takes the passport number alone: Turkey’s e-visa status page, which needs the passport number plus the email address you applied with, and the UAE federal authority’s File Validity service (ICP, accessed 2026-08-27), which needs passport expiry and nationality as well and reports only on a visa already issued. Everywhere else the key is the reference number you were given when you submitted.
This guide is maintained by Zurich Kotak General Insurance, an IRDAI-registered general insurer in India and part of the Zurich Insurance Group.
How Zurich Kotak fits in: Zurich Kotak runs none of these status portals, but it insures the trip the visa is for: Smart Travel covers emergency medical treatment abroad, medical evacuation, baggage loss or delay and trip cancellation for specified reasons, up to the limits of the plan you buy. It is bought per trip against your dates and issued online as soon as they are fixed, so it is the one item on the pre-departure list that does not sit in a queue.
Last verified: 2026-08-27.
Which countries allow a passport-number lookup
Almost none. Knowing so before you start saves an hour hunting for a tool that does not exist.
Destination | Passport number alone? | What the official tool actually needs | Official portal |
UAE, ICP (all emirates but Dubai), track application | No | Reference number and applicant email. No passport field at all | smartservices.icp.gov.ae , Track visa application |
UAE, ICP, check visa validity | No, but passport-based | Passport number, passport expiry and nationality. Issued files only | smartservices.icp.gov.ae , File Validity |
UAE, GDRFA Dubai | No | Application number, transaction number and payment date. Passport works in the reconsideration mode only, with nationality and year of birth | |
Saudi Arabia | No | Two identifiers from one list (visa number, passport number, application number, health-ministry reference, first name), plus nationality | |
Sri Lanka | Unconfirmed, re-check before publish | Tick “confirmation code not known”, then passport number, nationality and date of birth | |
Schengen, all states | No | No pan-Schengen applicant status system exists | none exists |
Schengen via a VFS Global centre | No | Your name plus the reference on the centre’s invoice or receipt | the centre’s tracking page |
Schengen via TLScontact | No | Account login: email address and password | the centre’s own portal |
Turkey | Yes, with an email address | Reference number, or if you do not have it, passport number plus the email address you applied with. Turkey’s own note says so explicitly | evisa.gov.tr status page |
United States | No | Consular post, the DS-160 Application ID or case number, passport number, first five letters of your surname | ceac.state.gov , CEAC Status Tracker |
United Kingdom | No | Nothing. UKVI runs no public status tracker | none exists |
Australia, VEVO | No | Passport number, date of birth, country of document, and one of a transaction reference, grant or evidence number. Granted visas only | online.immi.gov.au , VEVO |
Singapore | No | Nothing instant. Only whoever submitted through SAVE sees it; ICA otherwise replies by email | none for applicants |
Malaysia | No | Passport or document number plus the sticker number, which exists only once the visa is issued | |
Thailand | No | Sign in to the e-Visa account. No public status page | |
Vietnam | No | Registration code, email and date of birth | |
Indonesia | No | Register number and passport number, both mandatory | |
Oman | No | Visa application number, travel document number and nationality | |
Russia | No | Sign in to the account used to apply, or the application number and a verification code |
The two places a passport number genuinely works
Both are real, both need more than the passport number, and the UAE one reports only on a visa already issued.
Sri Lanka may offer a passport-number route, and we could not confirm it. The ETA status page has a checkbox for travellers who do not have their confirmation code. Tick it and the form asks for passport number, nationality and date of birth instead. Reach that page from the Department of Immigration and Emigration’s own site, because several lookalike domains compete for the same searches.
The UAE runs two ICP services and only one has a passport branch. Sending people to the wrong one is the commonest error here.
· Track visa application, the guest tracker for a pending application, takes a reference number and your email. There is no passport-number input on it.
· Check visa validity, or File Validity, offers File Number or Passport Information. The passport branch asks for passport number, passport expiry and nationality.
Two caveats on that one. The other fields are mandatory, so it is not a passport-number-alone lookup. And it reports on an existing file, an entry permit or residence visa already issued, so it says nothing about a pending application. It is free.
ICP does not cover Dubai. Dubai is GDRFA’s, and its status enquiry has five search modes (GDRFA, accessed 2026-08-27). An ordinary pending Dubai application needs the application number, transaction number and payment date from the receipt. Passport number appears in one mode only, Application for reconsideration, which is an appeal against a refusal, and even there it needs nationality and year of birth.
One Dubai service is worth knowing about before you go looking for a status at all. GDRFA runs a service named “Visa on arrival” for Indian citizens resident in the USA, the UK or the EU. Despite the name, nothing is issued at the counter: its published steps are an online application, 48 hours of processing, and the visa emailed on approval. So there is an application, and a reference number, to check.
The systems people most often expect to work, and do not
Four of the most-searched checks either do not exist or refuse a passport number.
The United States. CEAC takes a passport number, but only as a secondary verification field. The lookup key is the DS-160 Application ID for a nonimmigrant case, or the immigrant case number, plus the consular post you applied at. A passport number alone returns nothing.
The United Kingdom. There is no public UKVI status tracker for an entry-clearance application. UKVI states it “will not be able to provide information on the status of your application” while you are within the published processing times, and you learn the outcome by letter or email ( GOV.UK , accessed 2026-08-27). What exists is a processing-time estimator whose only input is the date you verified your identity, plus your visa application centre’s own tracking, plus the eVisa account for people who already hold status.
Schengen. No member state offers a passport-number status check and there is no EU-wide portal. The centre trackers key on your name plus the reference printed on your receipt; an application made in New Delhi produces a string like DENL/180423/0034/01. Germany’s missions in India direct applicants to the centre’s tracking and answer written enquiries only after the standard 15-day processing time (German Missions in India, accessed 2026-08-27).
Australia. VEVO always needs a transaction reference, grant or evidence number as well as the passport, and it is not an application tracker: the Department states that VEVO “does not provide information on your previous visas or new applications that the Department may be assessing” (Home Affairs, accessed 2026-08-27). A pending application lives in ImmiAccount, behind a login.
The reference number is the real key
Every system that works keys on a number issued to you at submission. Photograph the receipt before you leave the counter.
System | The number that actually opens it |
United States | DS-160 Application ID, shaped like AA0020AKAX, or an immigrant case number |
Schengen, via a visa application centre | The reference on the invoice or receipt, e.g. DENL/180423/0034/01 |
UAE, GDRFA Dubai | Application number and transaction number, with the payment date |
Malaysia | The sticker number, 8 to 15 characters, issued with the visa |
Vietnam | The registration code issued when you applied |
Australia | Transaction reference, grant or evidence number |
Russia | Application number, up to 17 characters, plus a verification code |
That receipt is the most valuable piece of paper in the process and the one people throw away. If someone else applied for you the number is with them, and for Singapore they are the only party who can see it.
“Use the official portal” is not enough on its own
An official domain can redirect to a commercial operator and still be correct, and an official domain can die while a near-identical private one thrives. Both are live now.
Turkiye’s e-visa address, evisa.gov.tr , currently redirects to a commercial operator’s domain. That operator describes itself as delivering the Republic of Turkiye’s e-visa service as an appointed intermediary, the same arrangement under which private companies run visa application centres worldwide. We could not confirm the appointment from a Turkish government page, so treat it as the operator’s own description rather than settled fact. The redirect is real, and landing somewhere unexpected is reason to pause.
Kazakhstan is the opposite case. The e-visa address most widely published for it no longer resolves, while a near-identical address belonging to a private travel agency is live and easily mistaken for it. The government portal is vmp.gov.kz .
So the reliable instruction is not “use the official portal”, because a remembered URL rots and a search result can be bought. Reach the portal from the country’s own foreign ministry or immigration homepage, and follow the links from there.
Addresses that no longer work, and still circulate
Five addresses that still appear constantly in search results are dead or superseded.
Address | Status |
404, and never was a tracker | |
404 | |
404, moved under /Apply-and-track-visa/ | |
Page not found | |
Superseded. Vietnam’s e-visa service moved to evisa.gov.vn |
A visa number is not an application number
These are three different identifiers, and mixing them up is why status checks fail at the first field.
Your passport number identifies you. Your application or reference number identifies the request you submitted, and is what almost every status tool asks for. Your visa number appears on the visa once granted, and is for verification, not tracking. To work out which you are holding, see our guide to what a visa number is and where to find it .
Where this sits in the journey
Checking a status is the middle of the process, not the end.
If you are still choosing a route, our e-visa countries for Indians list sets out which destinations run an online application at all, which decides whether there is a status to check. Where there is none, the application goes through a visa application centre and the tracking is theirs, not the government’s: our UK tourist visa for Indians guide is the clearest case. Once the visa is granted, the next thing to settle is cover for the trip, which our travel insurance pages set out.
Frequently asked questions
Can I check my visa status with only my passport number? Almost never, and never with the passport number on its own. Among the destinations Indians apply to most, only Turkey’s e-visa status page and the UAE federal authority’s File Validity service are passport-based, and both need more: the email address you applied with for Turkey, passport expiry and nationality for the UAE. Everywhere else the lookup key is the reference number issued when you applied.
How do I check a Sri Lanka visa status without my confirmation code? The ETA status page has been reported to carry a checkbox for travellers who do not know their confirmation code, which then asks for passport number, nationality and date of birth instead. We could not reach the page to confirm this on 2026-08-27, so treat it as worth trying rather than as certain. Reach it from the Department of Immigration and Emigration’s own site rather than from a search result, because several lookalike domains compete for the same searches.
How do I check a Dubai visa status? Dubai is handled by GDRFA, not by the federal ICP service. Its status enquiry needs the application number, transaction number and payment date from your receipt. A passport number works only in the Application for reconsideration mode, which is an appeal against a refusal, and needs nationality and year of birth with it.
Is there a UK visa tracker I can use with my passport number? No. UKVI runs no public status tracker for entry-clearance applications and states it will not provide information on the status of your application while it is within the published processing times. You are told the outcome by letter or email, and the gov.uk address most often shared for this returns a 404.
Can I check a Schengen visa status by passport number? No. There is no pan-Schengen status system and no member state offers a passport-number lookup. The visa application centre tracker keys on your name plus the reference number printed on the receipt you were given at submission, which for an application made in New Delhi looks like DENL/180423/0034/01.
How do I know I am on the real government portal? Reach it from the country’s foreign ministry or immigration homepage rather than from a search result or a remembered address. An official domain can redirect to a commercial operator and still be correct, and an official domain can lapse while a near-identical private one stays live, so the domain string alone does not settle it.
