The Philippine Embassy, Pretoria wishes to inform all Filipinos in countries under its jurisdiction (South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe) that it will be issuing ePassports starting 16 September 2010. The Machine Readable Ready Passports (MRRP) and green passports that have been issued will remain valid until their respective expiration dates.
The ePassport takes the MRP to the next higher level in travel document standard. With the ePassport, the Philippines join the exclusive club of countries issuing ePassports -- Japan, Republic of Korea, India, Hong Kong in China, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the UK, Russia, and the U.S.A. The ePassport has additional security features which include the following:
- An embedded microchip which contains data essential in verifying the passport holder's identity, including personal data, biometrics and digital signature. This chip is interoperable, which means that it can be read by any standard passport machine reader in border controls worldwide;
- A complex laminate that protects the datapage against tampering;
- Customized invisible images on every page; and
- A hidden and coded technology that allows the encoding of the holder's name and passport number on the passport photo.
With the introduction of the ePassport, passport applicants will need to personally appear in the Embassy for their application (whether for renewal or for a new passport). The applicants' picture and biometrics will be captured at the Embassy on their visit. Sending applications through post/mail will no longer be accepted.
The process of issuing an ePassport takes approximately four to six weeks to complete as its issuance is centralized (DFA Manila). Once the necessary data has been captured by the Embassy, the application will be sent to Manila electronically where the passport will be printed.
The ePassport fee is USD 60 or ZAR 900.
In case of a lost or expired passport and the applicant urgently needs to travel to the Philippines, the Embassy will issue a one-way Travel Document to the applicant and he/she must apply for an ePassport from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila.
For those residing outside of South Africa but are under the Embassy's consular jurisdiction (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe), the Embassy may launch a consular mission for the Filipinos located in these areas. The Embassy will coordinate with community leaders to disseminate information to their constituents on proposed schedules of the Embassy's consular missions.
