Uganda to open passport centre in Washington DC, four other missions

The Ugandan government will later this month open a passport issuance centre at its mission in Washington DC, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.

A number of Ugandans living abroad have always found difficulties in renewing their passports while still abroad.

These had to send their relatives to help them process their passports in Kampala as well as scheduling virtual interviews with the passport office before their passports are sent abroad via courier companies which proved costly but also time consuming.

However, in a bid to deal with this, a passport issuance centre was opened at the Uganda High Commission in London to ease the process for Ugandans in UK .

Addressing journalists on Monday, the Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesperson, Jacob Siminyu said another passport centre will soon be opened in Washington DC .

“Washington DC is next and will be done by March. We expect all our citizens around that area to submit their applications for passports, go for interviews, applications processed and still get their passports from there,”Siminyu said.

Underscoring the role of these passport centres, Siminyu said, “We have been taking a month to deliver their passports aboard but will now reduce to two weeks. Ugandans in the diaspora will now enjoy the services.”

Uganda has a number of its citizens working, living and studying in the US and these will ably be served by the new passport centre.

Other centres

The Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesperson revealed that four other passport centres will be soon be opened at Uganda’s missions in Ottawa(Canada), Copenhagen(Denmark), AbuDhabi(UAE) and Pretoria  in South Africa.

Whereas the passport centre in Ottawa will mostly be catering for Ugandans in North America, the one in Copenhagen will be in charge for issuance of passports to Ugandans in the Scandinavian countries whereas the one in AbuDhabi will cater for the growing number of Ugandans working in Middle East, mainly Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs recently moved all passport applications online.

The new passport centres abroad have therefore been situated in areas where there is a sizeable number of Ugandans either living, working or studying.