RG’s Office calls on people to collect processed p...

RG’s Office calls on people to collect processed passports

Zim Now Writer

There are stockpiles of passports that were processed over the years that are lying uncollected as owners have not claimed them, the Department of Civil Registry has said.

Speaking on the sidelines of an inter-ministerial Review and Validation of Comprehensive Assessment Report of Zimbabwe’s Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems workshop in Victoria Falls recently, Registrar General Henry Tawona Machiri appealed to Zimbabweans who applied for passports over the years to come and collect their documents.

Machiri said his office is busy quantifying them and grouping them by province, adding that they will soon publicise the names of their owners in the press.

This comes as Zimbabweans at some point struggled to access passports as the country had challenges in procuring the special passport paper, resulting in backlogs accumulating over the years.

The department has since cleared this backlog with the roll-out of the e-passport system in December 2021.

Machiri said there are cases where some of the passports have expired before being collected after outlining their 10-year lifespan for adults and five years for children.

“We have passports that have not been collected and the owners are moving around. Some of the passports have even expired on the shelves without being collected. The reasons could be that the client may have passed on before collecting their documents.

“So we are encouraging citizens to come and collect these passports, especially those that are still valid. We are going to be publicising these passports so that owners know which ones are still valid and where to collect them,” said Machiri.

The Civil Registry Department uses a short message service to notify applicants once the passport is out with Machiri saying some people may have missed the messages after losing their mobile phones, or due to network challenges.

Some Zimbabweans who are living in neighbouring countries illegally may have applied for passports and left without collecting them, while some may have lost their receipts.

A US$5 search fee is levied for those that lost receipts.

“So please I am begging citizens of Zimbabwe to come and collect their passports. They are yours and still valid, come collect them and use them to travel,” said Machiri.

“We are working on that and when we announce there won’t be any need for those that lost receipts to pay a search fee. Even if you lost your receipt, come forward, our system is there and shows us when and where you applied and we will be there to assist.”