Batswana advised to apply for E-passport

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Friday March 12, 2010 00:00

The ministry spokesperson, Letso Mpho has said that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship is receiving applications for issuance of the new machine-readable electronic passport (e-passport) in Gaborone.

President Ian Khama and cabinet ministers were issued with e-passports last year December.

Mpho said the application fee for the new passport is P260.

'For emergency travel within the region a machine readable emergency travel document (ETD) is also available for a fee of P12,' he said.

Applications for a new passport would be rolled out to other parts of the country by region. These are Tsabong, Maun, Lobatse, Serowe, Selebi-Phikwe, Francistown and Kasane. This rollout is expected to run until September after which 'following installation of the system in the respective regions applications may be made at the nearest District or Regional Immigration Office,' he said.

The lifespan of the e-passport is 10 years, while for those aged below 16 will hold the document for five years. Replacing a new passport will cost P1000.

Meanwhile Mpho said the current or old passport would remain valid for travel until December next year (2011). In an earlier interview with Mmegi, Mpho said the passport is secure because it is machine-readable. 'It has high electronic security features and cannot be easily faked. The data about the e-passport holder is all embedded in a micro-processor chip,' he said.

The e-passport project is expected to be complete by November next year.  Labour and home Affairs Minister, Peter Siele, has also disclosed that all International Civil Aviation  member states are expected to have complied with the issuance of machine readable documents by April this year.