Gov’t phases out paper passports
The Director Citizenship and immigration control has clarified that the recently upgraded polycarbonate East African Community E-Passports will not invalidate the existing paper based e- passports but will gradually phase them out.
Maj.Gen.Apollo Kasiita Gowa Director Citizenship and immigration control told journalists on Thursday morning that Ugandans still in possession of the e.- Paper machine readable passports are not required to ditch them for the high tech polycarbonate ones until they expire or leaflets are finished.
He says production of the existing machine readable passport ended on April 04 2021 following a two year transitional period.
“Both passports (e-paper based and polycarbonate ) shall continue to be used until expiry or the leaflets expire.” he says
Maj Gen Gowa says since the official launch of the polycarbonate e-passports in December 2018, a total of 1, 008,404 passports have been issued. The passports boast of enhanced security features, durability,entry Data protection and verification to meet Aviation International standards at various airports among others.
“The aim of the upgrade is to ensure enhanced security features, durability as well as conforming to requirements as recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization(ICAO) and EAC,”“This implies better quality, easy data verification at various airports by ICAO member states, better data protection and minimal chances of damage.” says Maj Gen Gowa
He further states: “ The upgraded polycarbonate e-passports just like paper-based e-passports have an electromagnetic chip, but the polycarbonate passports have polycarbonate which are tough plastic layers infused together leading to a finished material where personal data is engraved inside the deeper layers of the document with laser.”
Gov’t phases out paper passports
The polycarbonate ordinary electronic e-passport still costs shs250,000 express documents cost shs400,000. An official passport costs shs400,000 and a diplomatic travel document costs shs500,000.
