The Ministry of Internal Affairs has srevealed that despite the expiry of old passports on April, 4, 2022, Ugandans abroad will be allowed to use them to return home.
This follows the introduction of the new East African E-passport that is being emphasized as the modern national travel document. And therefore government has mulled plans to have the old machine-readable passports (MRPs) phased out for the new ones effective April, 4, 2022.
This means that past this date, no Ugandan will be allowed to use the then defunct old machine readable passports.
However, in a statement released on Friday, the Director in charge of Citizenship and Immigration Control, Maj Gen Apollo Kasiita Gowa said Ugandans living abroad and are returning home will be allowed to use the old passports.
“The Ministry of Internal Affairs wishes to inform all Ugandans living in the diaspora that after the deadline of April, 4, 2022, machine- readable passports will only be by citizens returning to Uganda. They will not be used to travel to other countries,” Maj Gen Gowa said.
He also urged Ugandans living in Uganda but are still using the MRPs to apply for their East Africa International Electronic Passports (E-Passports) online at www.passports.go.ug as the deadline is being approached.
E-passports were introduced due to technological advancements and they are worldwide accepted due to their capacity to provide secure identification of the passport holder. They also limit the chances of forgery of biometric information stored in the passport by fraudsters.
Currently, the fee for the new International East African e-passport is Shs250, 000 for Ordinary category under the normal service standards of seven days. Those who want the Express service that takes two days will pay an extra fee of Shs150, 000. Official passports cost Shs400, 000 while Diplomatic Passports cost Shs500,000.
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