Passport Seva reports your application’s progress as a short status message, and the Ministry of External Affairs publishes no glossary explaining what those messages mean. That is why the lists circulating online contradict each other. This page decodes the nine messages Indian applicants most often look up, with meanings taken from the government’s own documentation (Passport Seva, accessed 2026-08-27).
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: No insurer can move a status message along, but Zurich Kotak covers the trip waiting at the end of it. Zurich Kotak’s Smart Travel policy is bought per trip and issued online once destination, dates and travellers are entered, so there is nothing to arrange while the application is still in process. It covers emergency medical treatment abroad, medical evacuation, baggage loss or delay and loss of passport overseas, up to the limits of the plan you buy.
Last verified: 2026-08-27.
Find your message
Match the first six or seven words of what your tracker shows, not the whole sentence. These are templates, and the only parts that change are your district, your police office and your file number. So if your screen begins “Police report has been submitted by SP Office, District Gurgaon”, find the row starting “Police report has been submitted by”. The tables run in journey order, so your row also tells you what comes next.
Before the tables: where this wording comes from
The Ministry does not publish a list of these messages. The wording below is as applicants report seeing it. The meanings are sourced separately, from government documentation.
We checked the Passport Seva FAQs, the Citizen’s Charter, the instruction booklet and the Ministry’s RTI disclosure manual, and none carries a glossary of status strings. What does exist is a large body of people typing their exact status text into a search box, with the same template turning up word for word from nine different districts. So read every row below as “if your tracker shows wording like this”.
Stage 1: the application is with the Passport Office
Your file has arrived and is being read. Nothing has been decided and there is nothing for you to do.
Status message | What it means | What happens next | Typical duration |
“Passport application has been submitted along with applicable fees and supporting documents.” | Your file has reached the Passport Office with the fee paid and documents attached. Nothing has been assessed yet. | The file moves to review at the Regional Passport Office. | Not published for this step on its own. |
“Passport application is under review at Regional Passport Office.” | An officer is assessing the file. This is the desk where a document query, or a Show Cause Notice if one is coming, would originate. | Either the file moves towards police verification and grant, or the office asks you for something. | The Citizen’s Charter commits to up to 30 working days for a fresh passport, but that excludes the police verification period and runs only from receipt of complete documentation. |
Stage 2: police verification
This is where almost every long wait happens, and it is the stage the tracker says least about.
Status message | What it means | What happens next | Typical duration |
“Your application with File No. <your number> has been granted on Pre Police Verification basis. -PASSPORTSP” | Your application has been approved. The words Pre Police Verification name the verification mode recorded on your file, not a problem with it. | Printing, then dispatch by Speed Post. | Not published as a separate step. |
“Police verification report for passport application is under review at the Regional Passport Office. Passport will be dispatched after police verification report is found clear. The applicant would receive an SMS/e-mail once the passport is dispatched.” | The police report has reached the Passport Office and an officer is reading it. Nothing has gone wrong. | If the report is found clear, the file proceeds to printing and dispatch. | Not published. The police stage sits outside every timeline the government commits to. |
“Police report has been submitted and sent to Commissioner Office for review.” | The verifying officer’s report has gone to the district Commissioner’s office for review before reaching the Passport Office. | The reviewed report goes to the Regional Passport Office. | Not published. |
“Police verification report is not clear and application is under review at Regional Passport Office.” | The report that reached the Passport Office was not a clear one, so the file cannot be granted on it as it stands. | This is the one message that needs action from you. See the section below. | Not published. It depends on how quickly a re-verification is arranged. |
Stage 3: granted, printed, dispatched
Once any of these appears the decision has been made, and what remains is production and post.
Status message | What it means | What happens next | Typical duration |
“Police report has been submitted by <SP Office or Commissioner Office>, District <your district> and action for passport printing is initiated, to be followed by lamination, signing, quality check and dispatch.” | The police report is in and your booklet has entered production. The four words at the end are the remaining steps, in order. | Lamination, signing, quality check, then handover to India Post. | For a normal application on pre police verification, the published commitment is dispatch within three working days of the Passport Office receiving a clear report, not counting the day it arrives. |
“Passport application has been granted and police verification report has been submitted. The applicant would receive an e-mail/SMS once the passport is dispatched.” | Approved, with the police report on file. | Printing, then dispatch. | Not published as a separate step. |
“Passport has been printed and applicant would receive an SMS/e-mail once the passport is dispatched.” | The booklet physically exists with your details in it. | Dispatch by Speed Post to the present address on your application form. | Not published. Dispatch is the next event and it triggers an SMS or e-mail. |
These nine are the complete set we will publish. Longer lists exist elsewhere; they are reconstructions, which is why they disagree with each other.
“Police verification report is not clear”: read this carefully
It means the report that reached the Passport Office was not a clear one, so the file cannot be granted as it stands. It does not mean your application has been rejected, and it does not mean you have a criminal record.
This is the hardest message in the set to receive, and the one with the least useful information online, so here is what the Ministry actually publishes.
The route is set out in the government’s own Police Verification FAQ (Passport Seva, accessed 2026-08-27), and it is short: contact your Passport Office to understand the reason, provide clarification, and if required request a re-verification. The office needs a clear report from that re-verification before the passport can be issued, and on receipt of one the file is processed further.
Two things are worth knowing before you assume the worst.
A report can come back unclear for reasons that have nothing to do with conduct, the most common being that nobody was found at the address. The Ministry’s own disclosure manual is explicit that a report stating a student was not physically present at the parents’ address should not be treated as adverse, and that the parents’ address report is to be relied on instead. Address history is the other frequent cause: proof of address is needed only for your present address, but every address you lived at in the previous year has to be furnished so the police can verify it.
And this is not an appeal. An appeal applies to an adverse action, meaning a rejection, refusal, impounding or revocation, not to an adverse report. Police verification delayed, negative or stuck handles this message and its aftermath in full.
“Police verification report … is under review”
It means the police have sent their report and the Passport Office is reading it. It is a waiting stage, not a problem stage.
More people look up this exact wording than any other status message, which tells you how anxious it makes them. The sentence reads as though something is being questioned. It is not. Review here means an officer is assessing the report before the file moves on, which happens to every pre-verification file.
The message itself names the two things that come next: dispatch once the report is found clear, and an SMS or e-mail when that dispatch happens. There is no published duration for the step, because the police stage as a whole is excluded from every timeline the government commits to. For what is known about that wait, see how long a passport takes after police verification .
“Granted on Pre Police Verification basis”: this is good news
Granted means the Passport Office has approved issue of your passport. It is one of the few statuses that appears verbatim in government documentation.
The confusing part is the tail. Pre Police Verification names the verification mode recorded on your file, and the same message circulates with Post in place of Pre, which is the clue: that slot is the mode, not a verdict.
There are three modes, and the government’s own Police Verification FAQ gets this wrong, saying two and then referring to three in its next answer. The Police Verification Mode Details page tabulates all three, and three is correct: pre, post and none. Pre is the default. Your Acknowledgement Letter names yours, and pre versus post police verification explains which applies to whom.
The suffix -PASSPORTSP is the SMS sender ID, not part of your status.
“Printing is initiated, to be followed by lamination, signing, quality check and dispatch”
Your booklet is in production and the message is listing the remaining steps in the order they happen.
This is the message people ask about most after the verification ones, usually as how many days it takes once printing has started. The Ministry publishes no duration for the printing step, or for lamination, signing or the quality check. Nobody who tells you otherwise is quoting a source.
What it does publish is the dispatch commitment around those steps. For a normal application on pre police verification, dispatch is committed within three working days of the Passport Office receiving a clear, recommendatory police verification report, not counting the day it arrives (Police Verification Mode Details, Passport Seva, accessed 2026-08-27). Since this message tells you the report is in, that is the number to hold on to.
Post quality check is not a separate status. Quality check is the third of the four steps named in the sentence above, after lamination and signing and before dispatch, so it simply means the booklet has cleared inspection and the only remaining event is handover to India Post. What happens after that is a postal matter rather than a Passport Office one, covered in after dispatch: how long until your passport arrives .
When the status has not moved
Check that you are looking at the right thing first, then escalate through the Passport Office. An RTI is a last resort, not a first move.
Rule out two false alarms first. Where a Show Cause Notice exists, the tracker shows it in a separate table with its own status column, so a value such as Pending Dispatch from PO refers to the notice rather than to your application. And if you applied online but have not yet attended your appointment, you hold an Application Reference Number and not a File Number, so there is nothing to return.
If the status is genuinely stalled, the escalation ladder the Ministry publishes runs: the Passport Office enquiry counter in person, generally 1000 to 1300 hours; a Passport Adalat, held specifically for long pending and complex cases; a grievance through the National Call Centre on 1800-258-1800, which generates a trackable Service Request Number, or through the portal or CPGRAMS; and the Public Grievance Cell at passport.pg@mea.gov.in . Any grievance needs your file number or passport number, name and date of birth. How to check your passport application status sets out each route in detail.
Where this sits in the journey
This page tells you what a message means. Its companion tells you how to get one.
· Passport status check: every method , for the tracker, SMS, the app, the call centre and RTI.
· How long a passport takes after police verification , the timeline question.
· Pre versus post police verification , for which mode applies to you.
· Police verification delayed, negative or stuck , for the adverse report in full.
· After dispatch: how long until your passport arrives .
· Passport renewal process , if this was a re-issue.
A passport is what a trip gets booked on, and travel insurance is bought later, once dates are fixed. Nothing on this page needs it.
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean when the police verification report is not clear? It means the report that reached the Passport Office was not a clear one, so the file cannot be granted as it stands. The route the Ministry publishes is to contact your Passport Office to understand the reason, then request a re-verification. A clear report is needed before the passport can be issued.
What does granted on Pre Police Verification basis mean? It means your application has been approved. The words Pre Police Verification name the verification mode recorded on your file, not a problem with it. There are three modes, pre, post and none, and your Acknowledgement Letter shows which one applies to you.
How many days does it take after passport printing is initiated? The Ministry does not publish a duration for the printing step itself. What it does publish is the dispatch commitment: for a normal application on pre police verification, dispatch is within three working days of the Passport Office receiving a clear police verification report, not counting the day it arrives.
What does post quality check mean in a passport status? Quality check is the third of the four steps named in the printing message, after lamination and signing and before dispatch. Post quality check means your booklet has cleared that inspection and the next event is handover to India Post.
Are these the official Passport Seva status messages? The meanings are taken from government sources. The wording is not, because the Ministry of External Affairs publishes no glossary of status messages anywhere. The messages here are recorded as applicants report seeing them, and each turns up in identical wording across several districts.
My passport status has not changed for weeks. What should I do? Start with your Passport Office. Its enquiry counter handles status questions in person, a Passport Adalat is the route the Ministry designates for long pending and complex cases, and a grievance can be lodged through the National Call Centre, the portal or CPGRAMS. All are faster than an RTI.
