Philippines immigrants urged towards machine readable passports

Filipino nationals, or Pinoys, living in the UK are being urged by their government to update their passports.

The traditional green hand-written Philippine passport will soon be a thing of the past as the March 31st date issued by the international Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for the end of non-machine readable passports draws ever closer. From this date, member countries will no longer be able to issue such passports although the older versions are still valid up until the changeover.

As from the 1st of April 2010 the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, along with all Philippine Consulates General, DFA Regional Consular Offices and Embassies will only be issuing passports that are machine readable.

UK-based Filipinos have been urged to obtain the new passports prior to the change-over date to avoid complications by Consul General Ma. Theresa Dizon-De Vega. De Vega has stated that the new machine-readable passports would provide greater security features including, amongst others, holographic laminates and bar codes to prevent tampering. Passports have a long history of fraud and counterfeiting by criminal gangs but the new versions will theoretically prevent this. De Vega also pointed out that visas across several European countries may not be issued to those travelling on the old, non-machine readable passports.

Any Filipino who has a lost or expired passport can make a special application through the Philippine Embassy in London for a one-way travel permission document should they need to travel back to their homeland in urgent or emergency cases.