The Guyana government has implemented a new system that now allows Guyanese living abroad to stay where they reside and apply for the machine-readable Caricom passport through a consulate, embassy or high commission.
The arrangement, put in place late February, reduces the time taken to apply in Guyana, and cuts the costs.
Previously, applicants had to travel to Georgetown to join long lines at the Passport Office to place an application that took days or sometimes weeks to be processed.
Consul General of Guyana in Antigua & Barbuda, Robert “Bobby” Reis told OBSERVER Media, “Guyana has set December 31, 2013 as the cut-off point when all Guyanese must convert to the Guyana Caricom passport. Prior to this, all Guyanese had to go home to apply for that passport and we know that’s a long process.”
Reis said, “Persons outside Guyana who are here in Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat and a number of these islands in the north-eastern Caribbean that are served by the consulate in Antigua must provide an original birth certificate, marriage certificate, two passport-sized photographs, complete the form and in cases of children, I would physically have to see the child.”
Children under the age of 18 years applying for a passport must be accompanied by their parents, and in the absence of one of the parents consent must be given by the absent parent in the form of a notarised affidavit.
Other guardians are required to present documents proving their legal guardianship. Parents and or guardians are required to present their passports.
He said the overall process takes up to six weeks and costs EC 0.
“We have started processing passports here and have received about 150 so far, and about 120 in Tortola. At some point possibly Montserrat would come on stream,” Reis said.
“It is a lot more convenient now because it was quite expensive for folks to fly from Antigua to Guyana or from Montserrat or Tortola to Guyana to get a passport and it is a long process. So this is making it a lot more convenient and all of the countries in the world and embassies are a lot more comfortable with the machine-readable passport for security reasons,” Reis said.
Two months ago, representatives from the Guyana Passport Office came to Antigua and processed the machine-readable passports from here. Hundreds turned out to apply.
Seeing the number of applicants, the authorities decided to fast-track plans to allow the consulate to handle the applications.
Reis said it is to every Guyanese national’s benefit and interest to start converting, as is the case in all of the Caricom countries.
While Reis is only accredited to Antigua, he is allowed to function in other Caricom territories with permission from the Director General in Guyana and the authorities in the respective countries he services.
(Source http://www.antiguaobserver.com/?p=72512)
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