Minister launches e-passport portal

Jan 08, 2020

With the new development, an applicant needs a national ID, a copy of the recommender’s National ID, certificate to confirm the applicants profession, the type of service and finally, a copy of the old passport for those renewing application ID

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC) announces the operationalization of the new e-Passport portal which can be accessed at WWW.passports.go.ug.

The development has been introduced following the long and tedious manual process where the applicant has been required to obtain and fill a form, attach photographs and associated documents, look for the signature of the recommender, and finally present the file to the Immigration Officer for manual processing.

Apparently, with the new development, an applicant needs a national ID, a copy of the recommender's National ID, certificate to confirm the applicants profession, the type of service and finally, a copy of the old passport for those renewing application ID, mobile money EFT, Pay way and all types of visa cards and fill the passport application form.

The fees for the new e-Passport has remained the same whereby   Ordinary Passport  48 pages sh 250,000, Service Passport (64 Pages) costs sh 400,000, Diplomatic Passport (64 Pages)  sh 500,000, Express Processing  sh150,000, Courier Service for Applicants abroad sh10,000, Certification of Passport sh 30,000 and Fine for Replacement of lost or damaged Passport costs  sh100,000.

Obiga Kania the minister of state for internal affairs urged Ugandans to have confidence in the Directorate Citizenship and Immigration control in particular and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in general.

‘'I, therefore, take this opportunity to launch the new e-Passport application portal www.passports.go.ug and I  advise all Ugandans seeking Passports to apply online to avoid waiting for long for their Passports. The online applications will take 48 hours, I, therefore, urge all Ugandans to embrace the new development' 'Kania said.

With the manual processing, many unfortunate stories of people who try to go through middlemen who at the end of the day con them of their hard-earned money have been common.

‘'You do not need a middleman or an agent to access this facility. Go online, make the application, pay and finally come with your details and you will be served and if you need information or assistance on this matter and any services of the directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control, go directly to our nearest offices, anybody asks you for money at the Immigration Office please take the identity of that person and report him to the authorities,'' Kania added.

The minister is optimistic that the new development will eliminate chances of foreigners obtaining Ugandan Passports as it has pass-through thorough check and interaction with other government agencies relevant to applicant verification.

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