ICPSD Issues 700,000 Machine-Readable Passports

The Immigration, Citizenship and Passport Services Division (ICPSD), is reporting that, to date, the agency has issued some 700,000 machine-readable passports.
At a recent JIS ‘Think Tank’, Senior Director of the ICPSD, Carol Charlton pointed out that the process of phasing out the old passports has been going “pretty well”. She added that there was an increase in the number of persons visiting the office to acquire the new passports.
The phasing out process began in 2001 and already holders of passports that would have expired in 2006 have had them replaced. The schedule did not represent a deadline after which persons could no longer use their passports, but rather was a guide for when various passports might be brought in for renewal. All blue passports are still valid until their expiry date.
For the period, January to August this year, the Senior Director informed that the agency dealt with some 500 to 600 applications per day, but in the month of September, some 300 to 350 clients were served by the office on a daily basis.
“From January to about the end of August there was a massive daily application load and in recent times this has been reduced significantly,” she said.Continuing, she noted that currently, the division is up-to-date with its passport applications and persons may visit the office and access the services without difficulty.
She said although the department was not experiencing an accumulation of applications, clients were still required to use the numbering system to maintain an “orderly sequence of persons based on how they enter the system”. While explaining the possible causes for the crowd build-up, which is almost a constant phenomenon at the ICPSD, the Director revealed that this resulted from clients who live in rural areas. These clients, she explained, have to access their transportation early to get to Kingston and so would get to the office by at least 5:30 a.m.
To alleviate this, the transformation process being undertaken at the agency will take a look at establishing strategically placed regional offices as well as utilizing international missions, in order to reduce the number of persons visiting the head office. To outfit these newly created offices, the organization will train staff to provide the same quality of service that would be obtained at its Constant Spring Road office.
Meanwhile, on the matter of passport requirements for the CARCIOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), Miss Charlton explained that member States are required to introduce a passport that would be standard throughout the Caribbean.
She assured that the current machine-readable passport used by Jamaicans would not be significantly adjusted, but would carry a different cover and would include the CARICOM logo.
The Division was given the go-ahead in March 2005 for a 16-month diagnostic study, which will pave the way for its modernization. The upgrade will see the ICPSD achieving Executive Agency status by 2007.