Ministry Caters For Batswana Abroad

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Monday July 12, 2010 00:00

This will cater for Batswana who reside abroad. This amount covers installation of the system, payment of the contractor and training of staff to use the system.  Lekgoko said the schedule for the roll-out of the PBCS to the embassies will be released after the completion of the roll-out to offices in the country, which is billed for September 2010.

Thirteen thousand and twenty e-passport applications have been made as of June 30 with 11,469 issued as of the same date.  On those residing in countries where there are no Botswana embassies, she said they are advised to visit the nearest embassy and apply for the e-passport after the PBCS has been installed at all embassies.

She added that arrangements could also be made for Batswana who live in countries that do not have embassies, to apply for passports at a pre-arranged and mutually agreeable time for them with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.  The e-passport application has been said to be a hassle especially after the South African immigration officials declined to accept the Emergency Travel Document beginning June 1, with an exception to critical emergency grounds.  The PBCS is concerned with rolling-out of the machine-readable passports in the country to phase out the manual passport, which is prone to forgery.