ePassport distribution starts in July

With a 10-year validity, 2 million ePassport will be printed in Germany

The Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) is expected to begin distribution of digital passports, also known as ePassports, from July, 2019 to facilitate migration, and international travel.

Brig Gen Saidur Rahman Khan, project director of DIP said: “It'll start from July 1 if the Home Ministry gives clearance."

The ePassport has an embedded electronic microprocessor chip containing biometric information used to authenticate the identity of the bearer.

Implementation of the project - 'Introduction of ePassport, and Automated Border Control Management in Bangladesh' - started in July,2018, and it will continue until June, 2028 with government financing.

Bangladesh signed an agreement with Germany in 2018 to print electronic passports with 10 years' validity, which is in addition to the machine-readable passports.

Sources at DIP said though issuing of ePassport was scheduled to start in December, 2018, but issues related to arrangement of funds delayed the process.

ePassports will eventually be printed in a factory in the capital's Uttara. The government, meanwhile, plan to issue two million ePassports printed in Germany.

Initially, ePassports will be issued from Dhaka, and the distribution of existing MRP (Machine Readable Passport) will continue from other regional offices until they start issuing ePassports.

Existing MRPs will be accepted till its stipulated validity date.