The Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control announced Tuesday that no Ugandan will be allowed to leave the country if they don't have an electronic passport.
According to the Directorate, the use of machine-readable passports stopped on April 4, but those returning into the country will be allowed.
"The deadline for the phase-out of the Machine Readable Passport was on 4th April 2022. This means that all citizens traveling outside the country will be required to travel using the new e-Passport," reads an official statement.
"However, citizens coming back home are allowed to return using the MRP. In order to enable this transition, we have extended our operational hours at the Passport Center."
The six partner states of the East African Community in 2018 set a deadline of Jan. 15, 2021, to phase out traditional passports, but this had to be extended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The resolution to introduce EAC ePassports was reached during the 17th Ordinary Summit of EAC Heads of State held in March 2016, with an eye on streamlining data access.
The first batch of ePassports was brought into the country in December of 2018.
The costs of the different passports are as follows: Ordinary passport (Shs250,000), Official/service passport (400,000), Diplomatic passport (500,000).
If you apply for an ePassport in Uganda and you want it processed within a short period, you will pay for Express service which costs Shs150,000.
The passport will be certified for Shs30,000 and those abroad are charged Shs10,000 for courier service.
The ministry of internal affairs has decentralizes passport enrolment services to regional centers to ease service delivery, as demand has rapidly risen mainly due to the growth of the labor export sector.
