KOROR (Island Times/Pacnews) — Palau has begun early steps to replace traditional paper passports with more secure electronic passports or e-passports, according to Minister of State Gustav Aitaro.
Aitaro said the first phase of the project is underway, including the formation of a steering committee made up of representatives from the Office of the Attorney General, the Division of Immigration, Customs and Border Protection, and the Passport Office.
“The preliminary work has started,” Aitaro said. “The focus right now is on developing the legal framework and regulations before we move on to ordering the necessary machines to produce the e-passports.”
The project is supported by a $4.7 million grant from the government of Japan.
E-passports contain a small embedded chip that stores biometric data such as fingerprints, facial images, and iris scans, along with personal details like the passport holder’s name, birth date, address, and photograph. These digital features make e-passports more secure and harder to forge than paper passports.
Aitaro said the change will also help Palauan citizens in the United States. “When renewing passports, the issue of transferring I-94 records will no longer be a problem because the data will be embedded in the e-passport,” he said.
The new e-passports are expected to be available sometime next year. Aitaro asked the public to be patient as the government works through the necessary steps to implement the new system.
Traditional passports are becoming increasingly vulnerable to fraud and identity theft. E-passports aim to solve these problems by using advanced security features and digital verification methods.
