June 30, Colombo (LNW): The Department of Immigration and Emigration has announced an extension for passports expiring from the end of June, prolonging their validity by one year in anticipation of the e-passport launch in January next year.
Passports set to expire after a decade of use by June 30th will be extended free of charge for an additional year.
The introduction of e-passports, featuring embedded electronic chips, is slated for January, and the public is advised to upgrade to the new format.
An immigration official confirmed that a company has been chosen to produce the e-passports following a bidding process, with the goal of issuing approximately 700,000 e-passports annually once the project is operational.
