Government has launched an online passport application system which which is believed will help to eliminate corruption and unscrupulous middle men who have been known to defraud Ugandans.
The online passport applications process is also expected to improve the turnover of passports from seven days to 48 hours on average.
Addressing the media in Kampala on Thurday, the state minister for internal affairs Mario Obiga Kania ,said the system will help to reduce congestion at the passport office and most importantly reduce on the turn over time.
“It will reduce on the processing time of the passports from 7 working days which is our current standard practice to 48 hours,” he said.
He said that the system will help to eliminate all the middle men who have been conning money from Ugandans seeking for passports for many years.
“We have had many unfortunate stories of those who try through middle middlemen and brokers who at the end of the day con them off their money.
You don’t need a middleman or any agent to access the service,” he said.
The online application process has come with revised fees.
Ordinary passport will cost Ugx250,000, service or official passport costs Ugx400,000, diplomatic passport will cost Ugx500,000, express processing will cost Ugx150,000, courier service for applicants abroad will cost Ugx10,000, certification of passports is Ugx30,000, fine for replacement, loss or old damaged passport will cost Ugx100,000.
Obiga said people who had already paid using the old fee will have to apply again by paying the revised fee in order to get a new passport.
Garry Kizito from URA said the verification will be done from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to confirm that the service was not provided against the payment.
The immigration officers have also called upon all those who applied for the passports manually to ensure that application are submitted to the passport control office before 31st December 2019.
Manual application will continue for the time being although it will completely be replaced by online application system.
