Uganda opens e-Passport Enrollment Centre in Pretoria

The Directorate of Immigration and Citizenship Control (DCIC) has opened an e-Passport enrollment center at the Uganda High Commission in Pretoria. This center will enroll Ugandans living and working in South Africa and surrounding countries including Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Swaziland, with the newly introduced East African Community Electronic Passports. DCIC embarked on the diaspora rollout program at the beginning of this year starting in London, Washington DC, Abu Dhabi and now Pretoria. The Pretoria Centre is intended to serve an estimated number of 500,000 documented Ugandans living in South Africa and neighboring countries with between 150 to 300 passport applicants per month without having to return to Uganda. The rollout exercise continues with Ottawa-Canada, Copenhagen-Denmark, and Beijing-China. The Government of the Republic of Uganda started issuing the international e-Passport to the citizens on 7th Dec, 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 was extended to 4th of April 2022. The Government of the Republic of Uganda calls upon all its citizens living in South Africa and surrounding countries to take advantage of this newly opened center to apply for renewal of their passports to avoid any inconveniences related to this phase out. To apply for a passport, one must visit our 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 will then wait for notification in the form of SMS to collect the passport. The passport fees are as follows 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