By Omar Anderson, Gleaner WriterTHE UNITED States Embassy in Kingston has said it is unlikely that it will temporarily reduce the cost of a visa transfer, to facilitate a new thrust by the Government for Jamaicans to have machine-readable passports by December 2006.
The move to replace the old blue-covered passports with machine-readable ones, is part of Government's move to counter terrorist threats and reduce the number of persons leaving or entering the island on forged travel documents.
The U.S. Embassy charges US$100 ($6,000) to effect a visa transfer, the same price it charges persons seeking non-immigrant visas. A spokesperson for the embassy explained that a new passport undergoes the same process like an old one.
The spokesperson told The Gleaner that there will be no special privileges accorded Jamaicans in their bid to get new computer-readable passports.
"We do not foresee that the fee will change. The cost of the visa is determined by the Department of State in Washington and is the same at all diplomatic and consular posts around the world."
On Sunday, the passport office, an agency of the Ministry of National Security, placed an advertisement in The Gleaner urging Jamaicans to get machine-readable passports by December 2006. According to the advertisement, passports to be expired in 2005 and 2006, can be submitted for renewal as of April 30, 2004.
Passports, it added, that expire in 2007 and 2008 can be submitted for renewal as of September 30, 2004, while passports expiring in the 2009 and 2010 can be submitted for renewal as of March 31, 2005 and those expiring in 2011 can be submitted for renewal as of September 30, 2005.
NEW THRUST
But considering the new thrust on which the Ministry of National Security is embarking, it is expected that thousands of Jamaicans will move eagerly to have their passports changed before the deadlines expire. Many of these persons who already have non-immigrant visas may desire to get them transferred into their new passports.
But the U.S. Embassy said there's no need for it to implement special measures to facilitate a possible flood of Jamaicans on the consulate seeking visa transfers.
"The embassy's consular section has the capacity to handle much greater numbers of applicants than we are processing now or than we expect to handle in the coming year," the spokesperson said.
NEW SYSTEM
On March 30, this year, The Gleaner reported that the Government next month is to implement a new automated US$2 (120 million) immigration and control system at the island's two major international airports. The new system is a precursor to the biometric system the US is spearheading, where fingerprints and other personal information will be scanned inside machine-readable passports.
Gilbert Scott, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, told The Gleaner in the same story that while fingerprinting was not an immediate necessity, information scanned into machine-readable passports will also serve as a source of intelligence for regional and international law enforcement agencies.
He also said the Ministry had launched a programme to phase out the old passports. He noted however that persons with the old passports could still travel on them, as come next month, key information fields in them will be entered into a database that will allow immigration officials to capture essential information.
