Changes at Passport Office THE PASSPORT Office of the Ministry of National Security will begin issuing new, machine-readable passports to applicants effective September 3. The new passports, which should make verification of the holder's identity easier, are compatible with the border control detection systems being implemented at the country's ports of entry, and are developed with specifications to more easily detect tampering. Director of Immigration Passport and Citizenship Services in the Ministry of National Security and Justice, Carol Charlton, said that in the first stages of implementation, the passport office will only process first-time applications, applications for passports which have expired, and passports which need to be replaced because of damage or theft. In the meantime passports with the old format will remain valid until their expiry date or until further notice, while other travel-related documents issued by the passport office, such as the seaman's certificate of nationality and identity, emergency certificates, alien registration, and permits to leave Jamaica, will continue to be issued in their old format. New machine-readable formats for these documents will be issued later.
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