Immigration Department to introduce One-Stop Centers for Malawi Passports

The Department of Immigration says it will soon launch a one stop centre programme in a bid to reduce congestion as well as minimize the distance which people travel to process and collect their passports.

The department’s spokesperson, Joseph Chawuwa said the programme is part of government’s initiative to bring services closer to the masses.

“As part of government reforms, government introduced the one stop center concept which entails the bringing of public services to the people. And we as a public service provider responsible for issuing of visas, processing of passports and citizenship are incorporated into that” he said

Chawuwa said the process is being spearheaded by Malawi Regulatory Authority (MACRA) and will involve the use of post offices considering their presence across the country.

“The organization responsible for the managing of this concept is MACRA. As you know post offices are under MACRA, and it is mandated to make sure that the post offices are properly renovated and partitioned,” he said

Currently Lilongwe and Mangochi Post offices have been chosen as pilot districts for the programme.

According to Chawuwa most of processes that are involved in acquisition of a passport will be done in these centres except for the printing of passports saying this will ease congestion at immigration regional offices.

The centres will see applicants; collecting passport forms, having their bio data captured; taking of passport size photos as well as making payments.