You don’t need a broker to get a passport

Kenyans don’t need a broker to successfully apply for a passport from the Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons.

The Department of Immigration Services has undergone radical transformation with a new management culture that stresses service to the public.

Automation of the passport issuance system has also helped streamline operations.

Accordingly, applicants don’t have to use brokers or proxies and they don’t have to pay anything above the stipulated charges.

All an applicant needs is to personally present properly filled out PP1 forms for those above 16 years and PP2 forms for children up to 16 years, to passport counters at Nyayo House in Nairobi or at regional Immigration offices in Mombasa or Kisumu.

Digital photograph

Appearing in person is important because unlike the previous passport issuing system, officials now take a digital photograph of the applicants, which is embossed on the passport.

The ministry has required applicants to appear personally for the photograph since it introduced the new passport issuing system early last year.

Applicants are further required to present original and copies of their birth certificate, national ID, two coloured passport size photographs (not photo me) and certified copies of a recommender’s ID.

We require a consent letter from parents/guardians for children younger than 18 years to guard against human trafficking.

The new changes have left little room for brokers and other work practices that are inimical to appropriate service delivery.

Those who seek out third parties to whom they pay money do so out of ignorance and/or a misplaced phobia for the Immigration Department.

We have changed, but brokers could be taking advantage of people’s ignorance to reap money from them.

Immigration is there for you and it is there to serve you. So the next time you require a passport or a replacement, you will be served without having to pay anything apart from the official charges that are posted on the notice boards.

These are Sh3,040, Sh4,040 and Sh6,040 for a 32, 48, and 64 pages passport series and Sh6,040 for a diplomatic passport.

{Kennedy Buhere, PRO – Immigration Ministry}

 

 

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