Burmese Embassies to Suspend Passport Extension Services

By KYAW THEIN KHA, Irrawaddy News, March 5, 2010.

Burmese embassies around the world will suspend passport extension services for one month in April as the Ministry of Home Affairs has given them instructions to introduce passports using the international bar-code OCRB system.

“The Ministry of Home Affairs has instructed us to temporarily suspend passport extension services for the whole month of April. Passports that will expire in April are to be extended before then. The ministry hasn't explained the bar-code system passports to us,” an official at the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

According to a Xinhua report, the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency that promotes understanding and security through cooperative aviation regulation, has called on the Burmese government to stop issuing hand-written passports.

Passport offices inside Burma will begin issuing machine-readable passports on April 1, according to Burmese media reports. As part of the switch to the new passports and to facilitate international OCRB passport holders, OCRB machines will be installed at Rangoon International Airport, the reports said.

Meanwhile, there are concerns that Burmese expatriates could face difficulties in extending their passports under the new regulations due to a lack of information about the move.

“I went to the embassy yesterday to pay my taxes and I noticed that they had posted the new rules on the wall. My passport will expire in April, so it was lucky that I found out about this early enough to extend it before next month,” said one Burmese passport holder in Bangkok, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another Burmese national living in Bangkok also said that she had no idea about the suspension of passport extension services until she went to the embassy.

“Anyone who has not been to the embassy recently would not know that they need to extend their passports before April,” she said.

Burma has diplomatic ties with 92 countries around the world, with embassies set up in 30 countries.