Passports to cost EC$350 and valid for 10 years

by Linda Straker

• From 1 July 2024, passports will be valid for 10 years
• Passports of 10 year duration will cost EC$350
• Government will keep 5 year duration passports for individuals who are not yet of adult age

From 1 July 2024, the price of a passport approved and issued by the Immigration Department will increase to $350. It will be valid for 10 years except when the holder is under the age of 18 years.

Members of the Lower House of Parliament approved the changes during the 25 June sitting. Presented by Immigration and Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, the amendment to the Passport Bill seeks to amend the Passports Act, Chapter 226 to change the validity period of passports issued on or after the commencement date.

“Once this bill enacted from 1 July, which we hope to be the effective date, it will allow our citizens when they apply for a new passport or when they renew their old passport to have a 10 year passport issued,” said Prime Minister Mitchell

“From the time we assumed office, citizens have complained understandably so, about the fact that our passport has a shorter lifespan that the average passport throughout most of the OECS, Caricom countries and in fact the international community and so we are a government of, for and by the people, and we respond to the needs of our citizens,” the Prime Minister said as he presented the bill for debate and approval.

He told the sitting that Government is seeking to bring some cost benefits to citizens by offering them a 10 year passport that allows them to travel to the USA and Canada with a visa that has a longer lifespan than the passport.

“Often times the duration of the passport is expiring quickly to what is allowed in a visa. So for example you can have an American visa that is 10 years and a passport that is 5 years, but now you can have a passport that is 10 years when you renew the old passport so you don’t  have to staple 2 of them together and walk around with them,” he said.

The Prime Minister told the House that Government has decided it will keep the 5 year duration for younger individuals, “Partly because we recognise that when you get a passport for a baby that is 6 months, by the time the child is 5 years their features would have changed dramatically, and similarly from 5 to 10, and then to 15 you have pretty dramatic changes in physical appearance.”

He also told members that the cost of a passport will increase. “We will also amend the regulation for passport fees, naturally because we are moving from a 5 year duration to a 10 year duration, there is an increase in fee. We are moving from EC$250 to EC$350,” he said.