Dominica launches e-passport embedded with a chip and biometric capabilities

Roseau, Dominica:  The government of Dominica on Monday launched the new e-passport book. Officials said that the e-passport is highly secure and would protect the users from any type of identity theft, and the upgrade can be done between July 26, 2021, to July 30 2023. Rayburn Blackmore - Minister of National Security and Home Affairs, said that the Dominican passport is very powerful on a comprehensive and on a ranking basis. He said that the new e-passport book is designed by Canadian Bank Note (CBN), an Ottawa, Canada based corporation.

While discussing the extensive features of Dominica's e-passport book, Minister Blackmore stated that the passport would be embedded with an electronic chip and is equipped with biometric capabilities, facial recognition. He said the new e-passport book would have 50 laser engraved pages which is more than the 42 pages on the regular Dominican passport.

Blackmore said people who recently renewed their passports would be eligible for upgrading to e-passport in a smoother manner. He said everyone can upgrade their passport between July 26, 2021, to July 30 2023.

The fee of up-gradation to an e-passport will remain the same as the regular passport, i.e. for children under 16 years of age: EC$75, and for adults (16 years or older): EC$150.

Minister of National Security stated that if Dominicans living abroad want to renew their passport, they can use the current arrangements at the embassies and apply. He said specific instructions would be given on the new application form while applying.

Rayburn Blackmore further said that diaspora applying for a passport for the time could benefit from the new workstation systems that will be established within three months at various locations and cities, including New York, London, and Dubai.

Minister noted that with the highly advanced security features, it becomes more difficult to duplicate the passport by criminal elements. He said that the data chip on the e-passport is resilient to water; however, he advised people not to check it by throwing in water.

He said the decision of replacing a regular form passport with a biometric-enabled e-passport was taken by the government in 2019, before the general elections. Minister Blackmore added that the issuance of e-passports would cost the government $6M.

Furthermore, he added that the launch was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Dominica is now among the very few countries in the world to issue an e-passport book. He said it is of higher significance for a small island nation to launch the advanced technology passport.