China – The Directorate of Immigration and Citizenship Control (DCIC) has opened an E- passport enrollment center at the Embassy of Uganda in Beijing.
The passport center was launched today, Monday, May 22,2023 by Major General Kahinda Otafiire the Minister of Internal Affairs and the ambassador of Uganda to China Oliver Wonekha.
“This center will enroll Ugandans living and working in China and the accredited countries of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Kingdom of Cambodia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Lao People’s Democratic Republic,” noted the Internal Affairs Ministry Public Relations Officer Simon Mundeyi.
Mundeyi says Ugandans in China and the stated accredited countries now nolonger need to travel back to get their passports as they can apply online at www.passports.go.ug get personalized and pick their passports when ready at the embassy.
DCIC embarked on the diaspora rollout program at the beginning of 2022 starting with London, Washington DC, Abu Dhabi and Pretoria. Passport Centers have subsequently also been opened in Ottawa, Copenhagen and now Beijing.
The Government of Uganda started issuing the international E- passport to the citizens on December 7, 2018 and as a result, stopped the issuance of the old type of Machine-Readable passports.
Government issued a notification of a 2-year transition period to phase out the old Machine-Readable passport by 31st January 2022. However, due to the restriction by the Covid-19 pandemic, the deadline for phasing out was extended to 4th of April 2022.
“Old Machine-readable passports (Dark-blue) are also nolonger used even by returning Ugandans living in the diaspora making this Passport Centre very timely,” says Mundeyi
Government has called upon all it’s citizens living in China and the accredited countries to take advantage of this newly opened center to apply to renew their passports to avoid any inconveniences related to this phase out.
To apply for a passport, one has to visit the ministry portal www.passports.go.ug, thereafter, pay the requisite fees, schedule an appointment appear in person at the Embassy on the appointed day and have their biometric details captured. The applicants then wait for notification in the form of SMS to collect the passport.
The passport fees are; Ordinary Passports UGX 250,000, Service Passports UGX 400,000, Diplomatic Passports UGX 500,000, Courier fees UGX 10,000 Fine for lost Passport/Damaged passport UGX 100,000