The general director of Passports assured that about six million Dominicans have this important document which is a requirement to be able to travel anywhere in the world.
“Already around six million Dominicans are provided with the travel document, some have never used it, but they feel the need to have this document up to date, in case the opportunity arises,” said Néstor Julio Cruz Pichardo when interviewed by Héctor Herrera Cabral in the program D’AGENDA of Telesistema channel 11.
He maintained that the passport book issued in the Dominican Republic is a good document, but on the recommendation of the International Civil Aviation Organization, it is requiring the changeover to an electronic passport.
In such virtue, the official explained that he communicated this concern to President Luis Abinader and immediately ordered to proceed in that sense.
“Already last week we held an interesting meeting with the President of the Republic, as I told you the booklet we are using is good, but as members of the ICAO that has been suggesting for some time that we move from the machine-readable booklet, which is the one we have now, to the electronic passport that brings an integrated chip with all the information of the bearer,” he explained.
The official said that this passport speeds up considerably at the international borders where a citizen arrives, in this case a Dominican, after we enter this modality.
“And we received the okey from President Luis Abinader, who told me that we must start with that, because the Dominican Republic cannot be one of the last countries to enter the electronic passport,” said Cruz Pichardo.
He insisted that the nation’s chief executive was emphatic in pointing out that the country has to be at the same level of the most advanced nations in this regard.
Cruz Pichardo said that the price of the passport has not varied, since the ordinary one has a cost of 1,600 pesos, while the one who wants this document urgently for fast delivery has a cost of 2,650 pesos.
In another order, the general director of Passports admitted that they have faced some difficulties with the elimination of the legalization of birth certificates, because the citizens do not understand that this model is being implemented by districts, and not all at the same time.
“Unfortunately not all the districts and municipalities are issuing this type of certificate and those that do not have the event number in the QR code require legalization, that is why when they go to the Passport Office and we tell them that their birth certificate requires legalization, some citizens get uncomfortable, go to the media and say that this is a mess,” he lamented.
He says that, both with the issue of birth certificates that must be legalized, as well as with naturalized persons who require an authorization from the Ministry of Interior and Police, citizens who come without them in search of a passport, get very upset, but it is explained to them that these are requirements of the law.
