Namibia Switches to Biometric/ Electronic Passports

Namibia Switches to Biometric/ Electronic Passports

The Director of Immigration and Border Control, Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration, Mr. Nehemia Nghishekwa announces the issuance of Biometric-Electronic passports of Namibia to its citizens to enable maintaining the integrity of the Namibian travel document and to render it difficult to forge.

Mr. Nehemia said that the move was in line with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requirements, which urge all UN member states to implement the electronic passports.

Mr. Nehemia has explained that Namibia had an untainted reputation internationally, making it an ideal target for international travel document fraudsters. He noted that the electronic passports come with general security features, compared to the previous passports, adding that the electronic passports contain 40 pages compared to the 32 pages of the old passports. The electronic passport features include the Namibian map on the inside of the cover page, images of the Namibian Parliament, the national flower of Namibia, the Welwitschia Mirabilis and a watermark on all pages.

The machine-readable passports currently in circulation, which include ordinary, diplomatic and official passports, will run concurrently with the new electronic passports until they outlive their lifespan of upto five years.

An electronic passport will cost N$160 and the waiting period will remain the same.