7 News Belize

Change In Passport Procedures Produces Panic
posted (February 28, 2013)
Starting tomorrow, there will be new requirements imposed by the Immigration Department for persons applying for passports. One of those new requirements includes an addition of a second recommender for the person making the passport application. According to the Immigration Department, these new measures are being put in place to ensure the security of the process. But for some Belizeans, this new passport regulation simply complicates an already complex application process. And so, crowds thronged to the immigration office today and lined up both inside and outside the corridor trying to beat the new system.

Mario Arzu
"Actually it's one of our peak seasons for applications when Easter comes around. The other part is also because of the new application process that should take effect tomorrow March 1st. I guess Belizeans also wants to take advantage of the old application process which may appear to be less cumbersome than the new application process that should take effect tomorrow, so they are trying to put in their application before the deadline."

Monica Bodden
"Tell us about the new application and why the change?"

Mario Arzu
"The new application process why that comes about primarily for two reasons; one, that the applicant say exactly who they are and that we could verify indeed that that individual is who they are and secondly that the applicant is indeed a Belizean national. That's the fundamental reasons why this new application process is coming on stream tomorrow and it just kind of make it a more extensive that you have two sets of applications now; one for minors and one for adults. Likewise the recommenders have change; back in the days all we needed as a JP and that would have taken care of the application, now we have a class A and a class B recommender to make easier one from the private sector and one from the public sector. The ones from the private sector are the attorneys at law. You have the medical practitioners, justices of the peace and the notary public. The one from the public sector are the heads of department, members of the House, license teachers and the CEOs from the Ministries of Government - that's basically the two; Class A and Class B. We try to fill it within the 12 working days or if you are applying from the districts it would be 20 working days. The production time still remains. We try to keep it within what we did when it was the old application process. What changes is just the application and the way it's done where we require more documents from the applicant and require more supporting from the ones that have acquire Belizean nationality as well as the Belizeans that are applying for the first time."

Other changes in the application process include the addition of expedited services. A passport delivered in 24 hours will now be available for a fee of 200 dollars. For 48 hours it will be a fee of 100 dollars and 3 to 5 days services will now be a fee of 50 dollars.

Also, persons who are making applications from foreign missions will asked to fill out an additional form as well as those who have damaged or lost their passports.

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