THE Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) on Wednesday said in a press release that, with the introduction of the machine-readable passport system, there was a requirement by the Ministry that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) would implement an arrangement whereby members of the public applying for passports for the first time would present to the Immigration Department birth certificates that were issued not more than six (6) months prior to the date of the application.

The intention was to guarantee the integrity of the newly implemented machine-readable passport system.
Unfortunately, this arrangement was not implemented by the GPF, as required by the MoHA.

Cognizant of the concerns of members of the public, the MoHA, along with the GPF, has reviewed the entire system pertaining to the issuance of passports, and has now put in place the following administrative system to address this matter.

Persons applying for passports are asked to submit the following:

Passport Application Form
Birth Certificate
One (1) Passport –size photograph and a fee of four thousand ($4,000) Guyana dollars.

In relation to lost/damaged passports, the processing fee is fifteen thousand Guyana (G$15,000) dollars, and additional conditionality’s are required to be satisfied to facilitate issuance.

The Guyana Police Force through its Immigration Department will make every reasonable effort to expedite the processing of the applications, but the five (5) day processing time guaranteed by the Force is not likely to be honoured because of the need for a more robust verification process to accompany the production of the travel document.