Sri Lanka’s Immigration and Emigration Department has informed of a new system to obtain passports after scrapping the newly introduced online registration system.
Issuing a notice, the Immigration Department said it was not necessary to register to apply for passports, effective from last Friday (Aug 23).
The department further said as per the new system, 400 passports will be issued per day under the one-day service and 250 passports under the normal service, based on the sequence of visiting the Immigration Department.
Furthermore, the department said that the public with a valid passport containing blank pages can use their existing passport until the e-passport system is implemented in the near future.
Sri Lanka launched the online passport system via 51 Divisional Secretariats islandwide in June 2023, as part of the government’s digitalisation programme. Under the newly launched system, people could obtain passports within three days for Rs 15,000 and within 14 days for Rs 5,000.
However, the online passport system faced several issues and failed.
At the time the online passport system was launched, the Immigration Department said they were capable of issuing only 3,700 passports out of the 35,000 applications that were submitted.
Issues continue to prevail, resulting in delays and long queues at the Immigration Department on a regular basis, with most Sri Lankans scrambling for passports to go abroad, largely for employment.
The more serious issue faced at present is the shortage of passport books, which has resulted in severely hindering the passport issuance process.
Earlier this month, Public Security Minister Tiran Alles requested the public to delay applying for passports until October, urging only those with immediate requirements to apply for urgent passports.
Addressing a media briefing, the minister said that those who apply for passports in October will be able to obtain new e-passports which meet international standards. The new passports will feature enhanced security features, he revealed.
The tender for the new passports had been delayed due to various reasons, causing the delay in issuing new passports, the minister said.
“Although the daily requirement is to issue around 3,000 passports, only 900 is currently issued due to the current situation,” Minister Alles said, adding that certain provisions have been allowed to issue around 100 passports daily for extremely urgent requirements. (Newswire)