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Embassy Resolves Passport Issuance Nightmare in Washington
- By Williams Ekanem
- Published August 29th, 2011
- Washington File
- Unrated
What used to be a horrendous activity at the Nigerian Embassy and Consulate Offices in the United States is now a thing of the past as over 240 electronic passports ready for collection has not been picked up by the owners.
Only last week, the Embassy in Washington D.C put up a notice calling on over 240 persons to pick up their electronic passports that had since been ready for collection.
As the dateline for the old passport drew close, it was a beehive of activities at the Embassy and indeed consular offices across the United States as Nigerians made haste to beat the deadline and get the electronic new international passport.
The last minute rush led to pressure on the Nigerian Customs Services, issuers of the passports. The situation was made worse by lack of the machine capable of producing the passports in the entire USA.
However, in May, both the machine and a team of engineers arrived the USA and began both installation and issuance of the machine readable passports.
BusinessWorld gathered that in the intervening period since May, over three thousand electronic passports have been issued
Prior to the commencement of the issuance of e-passports, the Machine Readable Passport (MRP) era was said to be characterized by cases of identity theft, forgery, proxy issuance and other forms of document fraud, the Minister said.
This unwholesome trend, Emeka Wogu, Minister of Interior said at the flag off of the issuance of electronic passport in Washington D.C in May , posed a lot of challenges to Nigerian travelers as almost every Nigerian became an object of suspicion and was subjected to rather humiliating screening at most international airports.
With the introduction of the electronic passport, the Minister said that the country has earned greater and better recognition from international community. This, he said, is buttressed by the fact that the e-passport has brought restoration of dignity of the Nigerian travelers as the e-passport has a microchip embedded in it coupled with other peculiar security features that is not susceptible to the shortcomings associated with MRP.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mrs. Rose Uzoma advised Nigerians against changing their data at will warning that the e-passport will reject such changes except for married women who want to effect maiden name during to their new married status.
The Nigeria Immigration Service is the agency of government statutorily empowered to issue travel documents and manage migration into and out of the country. It rolled out the e-passport in July 2007.
Only last week, the Embassy in Washington D.C put up a notice calling on over 240 persons to pick up their electronic passports that had since been ready for collection.
As the dateline for the old passport drew close, it was a beehive of activities at the Embassy and indeed consular offices across the United States as Nigerians made haste to beat the deadline and get the electronic new international passport.
The last minute rush led to pressure on the Nigerian Customs Services, issuers of the passports. The situation was made worse by lack of the machine capable of producing the passports in the entire USA.
However, in May, both the machine and a team of engineers arrived the USA and began both installation and issuance of the machine readable passports.
BusinessWorld gathered that in the intervening period since May, over three thousand electronic passports have been issued
Prior to the commencement of the issuance of e-passports, the Machine Readable Passport (MRP) era was said to be characterized by cases of identity theft, forgery, proxy issuance and other forms of document fraud, the Minister said.
This unwholesome trend, Emeka Wogu, Minister of Interior said at the flag off of the issuance of electronic passport in Washington D.C in May , posed a lot of challenges to Nigerian travelers as almost every Nigerian became an object of suspicion and was subjected to rather humiliating screening at most international airports.
With the introduction of the electronic passport, the Minister said that the country has earned greater and better recognition from international community. This, he said, is buttressed by the fact that the e-passport has brought restoration of dignity of the Nigerian travelers as the e-passport has a microchip embedded in it coupled with other peculiar security features that is not susceptible to the shortcomings associated with MRP.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mrs. Rose Uzoma advised Nigerians against changing their data at will warning that the e-passport will reject such changes except for married women who want to effect maiden name during to their new married status.
The Nigeria Immigration Service is the agency of government statutorily empowered to issue travel documents and manage migration into and out of the country. It rolled out the e-passport in July 2007.
