News

No need to rush

By ROMELL NEWBY, Staff Reporter

IT IS NO longer compulsory to get the new machine-readable passports before December 31, 2006 as the old ones are valid up until their expiration dates.

According to the Ministry of National Security's Immigration, Citizenship and passport services Division, better known as the Passport Office, it never was. But this, clearly, was undermentioned in the series of advertisements that had been placed in the press, starting last April.

It was made known that all Jamaicans would be expected to hold new machine-readable passports by December 31, 2006. Passports expiring 2005 and 2006 were to have been submitted for renewal as of April 30, 2004; those that expire in 2007 and 2008, submitted as of September 30, 2004; while passports expiring in 2009 and 2010 should have been submitted for renewal as of March 31, 2005.

However, due to the influx of persons rushing to renew their passports, the process has been revamped. The new date for renewing passports expiring after 2008 is yet to be announced.

"At present, only passports that expire before 2008 are being accepted for renewal, except in special cases which would be treated on their own merit." shared Carol Charlton, senior director at the Immigration, citizenship. "We would really like to encourage persons to change over for their own comfort when they travel, but it is not mandatory as the old passports are still valid for the period which they were issued."

THE STAR understands there may have been some concerns about the legality of forcing people to renew their passports before the expiry date without some sort of refund and this may have been one of the reasons that prompted this change.

Dismissed claims

She explained that persons are still coming in to renew passports before the period that was given. "These persons will be turned back," she said. Charlton dismissed claims of any immediate plans to change the cost of passport renewal/application.

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer for the Ministry of National Security, Donovan Nelson, informed THE STAR that efforts were made to advise the public that passports would still be valid after December 2006. He said that the December 2006 deadline was more of an ideal for the changeover by the majority to the machine readable passports.

Mr. Nelson said the possibility of the new passport being compulsory for travel to the United States, contributed to the expectation for all passports to be renewed by December 2006. He said some parts of Europe are already refusing the 'blue' passport.

Mr. Glenn Guimond, Public Affairs Officer at U.S. Embassy said the embassy will continue to place visas in all valid Jamaican passports. However, he noted that they strongly prefer that passports have at least six months remaining validity.

Persons who have already renewed their passports and choose to not transfer their visa, can travel with both old and new passports as the visa is valid for any period it is issued for, regardless of the validity of the passport in which it is printed.

The introduction of machine readable passports is aimed at curtailing illegal activities by being able to track persons entering and leaving the island and maintaining the authenticity of travel documents. The passports will have data scanned into them, data which are read and stored by computer systems.