Renew your passports: Gov’t sets deadline to phase out old passports

The Ministry of internal affairs has warned people who have not replaced their old passports with the East African Passport that Ugandan Machine-readable Passports will no longer be valid for international travel after April 4, 2022.

Jacob Siminyu the Ministry of internal affairs spokesperson says after that date anyone with the old travel document will be denied visas and air tickets.

The Republic of Uganda introduced an International East African e-Passport to replace and eventually
phase out the current East African and International Machine-Readable Passports.

This followed the 17th Ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State held in March 2016 in Arusha, Tanzania, when the
presidents launched the East African e-Passport and directed the commencement of its issuance.

In line with the above directive, issuance of the current generation of Machine-Readable Passports was scheduled to
commence at the end of January 2019.

The Issuance of the International EAC e-Passport commenced on 7th December 2018 though the old passports are still in use.