Travel guide

NVR seal or visa? What your U.S.-born child needs to visit Bangladesh.

Your child has a U.S. passport. Here is how to get them into Bangladesh, what it costs, what to mail to the Embassy, and how long to allow before a trip home.

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The short answer

A child born in the U.S. travels on a U.S. passport, even if one or both parents hold Bangladeshi passports. U.S. law requires U.S. citizens to leave and re-enter the country on their U.S. passport. To enter Bangladesh on that passport the child needs either a visa (good for one trip) or the No Visa Required seal, known as the NVR, which is stamped into the passport and lasts as long as the passport does.

For most Dallas families the NVR is the better choice: one application covers every trip until the passport expires, it costs less than a single visa, and the child can stay as long as the family needs to. The visa makes sense only for a one-off visit, or when there is no time to get the NVR before an urgent trip.

Your three options, side by side

Fees are the missions’ published figures in October 2026; the Embassy’s website has the current amounts.

What to send for a child’s NVR

From the Embassy of Bangladesh in Washington’s simplified NVR form (revised February 2025) and the New York consulate’s NVR checklist. Texas is served by the Embassy in Washington, DC.

• The NVR application form. Fill in the online form at visa.gov.bd, choose “No Visa Required”, print it with its barcode and sign it (a parent signs for a child). The Embassy also accepts its own one-page PDF form, downloadable from its NVR page.
• The child’s original U.S. passport, valid for at least 6 months, plus a photocopy of the photo page. This is the only original document you send; everything else goes as a copy.
• One passport-size photo (2 × 2 inches, white background), glued to the form, not stapled.
• A copy of the child’s U.S. birth certificate that names the Bangladeshi parent.
• One proof of the parent’s Bangladeshi origin: a copy of the parent’s Bangladeshi passport (current or old), National ID card, birth registration certificate, Dual Nationality Certificate, or the parent’s own NVR page. The parent does not need to be a U.S. citizen; a green-card holder with a Bangladeshi passport qualifies.
• The fee: $88 by money order, cashier’s check or official check, payable to the Embassy of Bangladesh, Washington, DC. Fees are non-refundable.
• A prepaid, self-addressed return envelope with tracking, such as USPS Priority Mail or Express Mail, so your passport comes back safely. One family at one address can send all its applications in one envelope with one return envelope.

Step by step, with timing

1. Check the passport first. A child’s passport must have at least 6 months left on the day you apply, and you will need the same 6 months on the day you land in Bangladesh. If it is close, renew the passport before you apply for the NVR, because the seal dies with the passport.
2. Gather the copies (birth certificate, parent’s Bangladeshi document) and take the photo. Pharmacies and shipping stores in Dallas do passport photos in minutes.
3. Fill in the form online, print, sign. One form per child.
4. Mail the packet with the passport, fee and return envelope to the Consular Section, Embassy of Bangladesh, 3510 International Drive NW, Washington, DC 20008 (confirm the address on the Embassy’s site), by a service with tracking.
5. Allow four to six weeks door to door: the Embassy’s processing is usually about a week to ten working days, and the mail adds a week or more in each direction. For a December trip, post the application in October. Hold off on non-refundable tickets until the passport is back, or ask us for a 24-hour hold while you wait.
6. Check the seal when the passport returns: the child’s name, the NVR number and the stamp. Then book with us and bring the passport to the airport; nothing else is needed at check-in.

Mistakes we see every year

• Thinking the parent’s passport covers the child. It does not. Every traveler, including a baby, needs their own passport and their own NVR or visa.
• Sending originals of everything. Only the passport goes in as an original. Original birth certificates and NIDs can be lost in the mail.
• A birth certificate that does not name the parent. Order the long-form certificate from the state, not the hospital souvenir copy.
• A passport with under 6 months left. Renew first, then apply; otherwise you pay twice.
• No return envelope or no tracking. The passport will not come back without one.
• Applying three weeks before the flight. Mail alone can take two weeks round trip. If you are already late, call us and we will talk through the fastest option, including a visa on arrival as a fallback.
• Forgetting the transfer. When the child gets a new passport, the NVR has to be transferred to it (new form, new fee, copies of the old passport and the old NVR page). Put a reminder a few months before the passport expires.

Common questions

Sources, checked October 26, 2026: Embassy of Bangladesh, Washington, DC (simplified NVR form, revised Feb. 12, 2025: eligibility, documents, $88 fee) · Consulate General of Bangladesh, New York (NVR checklist, validity, mail-in service, fees, jurisdiction) · U.S. State Department: Bangladesh (visa on arrival, dual nationals).

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