Uganda, through the Directorate of Immigration and Citizenship Control (DCIC), has opened an E-passport enrollment center in Beijing.

While launching the Beijing e-passport center on Monday, May 22, 2023, Major General Kahinda Otafiire, the Minister of Internal Affairs, said this is the seventh e-passport enrollment center to be established by the Directorate of Immigration and Citizenship Control (DCIC).

“This center will enroll Ugandans living and working in China and the accredited countries of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic,” said Gen. Otafiire, the Minister of Internal Affairs during the Monday,  May 22nd 2023 launch.

He says Ugandans in China and the accredited countries won’t have to travel back to get their passports adding that they can now apply online at www.passports.go.ug, get personalized, and pick up their passports when they are 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 been opened in Ottawa, Copenhagen, and now Beijing.

“To apply for a passport, one has to visit the ministry portal at www.passports.go.ug, pay the requisite fees, schedule an appointment, appear in person at the Embassy on the appointed day, and have their bio-metric details captured. The applicants then wait for notification in the form of an SMS to collect the passport,” said Simon Mundeyi the spokesperson of Internal Affairs Ministry.

He listed the fees as follows: ordinary passports, UGX 250,000; service passports,  UGX 400,000; diplomatic passports,  UGX 500,000; courier fees, UGX 10,000; a fine for a lost or damaged passport, UGX 100,000.

The Government of Uganda started issuing the international E-passport to its citizens on December 7, 2018 and, as a result, stopped the issuance of the old type of machine-readable passports.

The government issued a notification of a 2-year transition period to phase out the old machine-readable passport by January 31, 2022. However, due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the deadline for phasing out was extended to April 4, 2022.

“Old machine-readable passports (dark blue) are also no longer used, even by returning Ugandans living in the diaspora, making this Passport Center very timely,” says Mundeyi.

The government has called upon all its 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.