With nearly a six months passport renew deadline coming to a close, many Ugandan citizens that haven’t yet renewed or upgraded their ordinary machine-readable passports to the meet the standards of the new East African required Electronic passport stand high chances of flights halt or travelling out of the Country.
Government through the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration under the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be phasing out the old machine-readable passports by 4th April 2022.
According to a press statement released by the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration at the Ministry of Internal Affairs earlier this year, Government plans to outdo the ordinary machine-readable passports are underway as the exercise commenced on 7th December 2018 and as a result stopped issuance of the machine-readable Passports.
Government went further to issue a notification of a 2-year transition period to phase out the machine-readable passports by 31st January 2021 although the period was extended due to prolonged existence of the Covid-19 pandemic and preventative guidelines. However, the public was alerted about the decision to push forward the deadline to April next year which is approximately just six months from now, although the current passport is still valid as a recognized travel document together with the new electronic Passport.
According Dr. Benon M. Mutambi, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, ‘’Government urges the general public to take advantage of the window period and change their old machine-readable passports to the new international passports to avoid travel inconveniences related to the deadline’’.
How to Apply for the E-Passport
For all citizens that want to take charge of the window period to apply, pay and schedule an appointment, log on to the e-Passport portal http://www.passports.go.ug and follow prompts.
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