ID needed for passport

THE Immigration and Citizenship Authority (ICA) is currently at the “whim” of the National Identification office for the issuance of passports, says chief migration officer Solomon Kantha.
He said in order for ICA to print any travel document, legitimate identification needed to be provided, which was the role of the PNG NID office.
“In order to have a passport, you have to have a birth certificate and that’s the process that we do not control,” he said.
“To have a passport, you have to have a genuine birth certificate and at the moment, we are at the whim, if you like, of the NID office to be able to issue birth certificates to our citizens for them to apply.
“We are doing all our best to try to improve the process and turnaround times but in some cases we cannot make any decisions until the process for birth certificates and the issuance of NID and all that is improved.”
Kantha said there were currently more than 500,000 passport holders in the country and stressed that people who wished to have a passport should meet the proper requirements by providing legitimate documents.
“We have had improvements with our client services via online services and also a new passport processing centre at Koitachi Haus.
“In terms of citizenship applications, we processed and awarded 36 dual citizenships and two naturalised citizenships and there are a lot more applications that are under processing. A lot more people are now applying because of the transparency. They do not have to pay anyone.”