Bangladesh is set to begin the distribution of e-passports. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to launch the e-passport distribution at an event scheduled to be held at the capital’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre. The President and Prime Minister will receive the e-passports first and anyone can apply for it.
The delivery of e-passports will start in regional offices by the end of 2020. The services will expand in phases, machine-readable passports will remain valid as well. The Department of Immigration and Passports will issue 48-page and 64-page e-passports with the validity of five years and 10 years, respectively.
The decision on introducing digital passport comes less than a decade after Bangladesh switched from manual to the machine-readable passport. The government took the initiative to introduce e-passports in the wake of more than one passport being illegally issued against one person in the absence of database of fingerprints of citizens.