South Sudan to issue new passports with 10-year validity and EAC passport in 2027
South Sudan passport|Courtesy
The Directorate of Civil Registry and Immigration says it plans to introduce a new generation of national passports, with a 10-year validity and East African Community passports, in August 2027.
The move is part of efforts to modernize South Sudan’s identity and travel document system.
Speaking to Eye Radio in an exclusive interview on Friday, the Director General of the Directorate, Maj. Gen. Elia Costa, said the new passports will have improved security features and national identity elements.
General Costa said the redesigned passport will reflect South Sudan’s heritage by including the emblems of the country’s 10 states and three administrative areas.
He said the new passport will also feature images of the River Nile, wildlife, forests, oil, and other national resources on its pages.
“Our passport now, we are going to implement another new generation, which will start on August 2027, and we are going to have some changes in our booklet of passport,” he said, speaking to Eye Radio in an exclusive interview.
“If you know, if you see in the passport, you have only one logo in all the pages, logo of South Sudan. But now the new generation, we are going to add some features in the pages. We are going to have the logos of the 10 states plus three administrative areas in each page,” he revealed.
“We are going to have to add also our resources, like animals, river Nile, forest and other oil and other resources into the pages of our passport, so that it can appear in each page of our passport. So, the new generation also, we are going to have another change. Maybe one of them will be the increase of the year from five years to 10 years. So that one will be approved by Council of Ministers and the Parliament,” he added.
General Costa said the reforms will also remove the holder’s occupation from the passport data page.
He said the information will instead be kept in the digital system.
The Director General added that South Sudan will introduce the East African Community passport after approval from the Council of Ministers and the Transitional National Legislature.
“Also, we know that we are a member of the East Africa community. We are going also to introduce East Africa community passport, so that one will be done by the approval from the Council of Ministers and the Assembly. So, the new generation will be East Africa community passport, according to the agreement,” he revealed.
He said the government is also proposing to extend the validity of ordinary passports from five years to 10 years.
“We amend our passport act, so we can make it instead of five years, we make it 10 years. As we know, five years, sometimes we have a student study abroad, instead from time to time to come or to apply for renewal, that 10 years can be enough for them,” he added.
General Costa said the change would reduce the burden on South Sudanese citizens living abroad, especially students, who frequently travel for passport renewals.
“Also, according to the standard, the standard now, most of the countries now are using 10 years for the renewal of the passport. There are some changes also, like the occupation. Instead of the occupation appearing in the passport, it can appear in the system only.
“So, we’ll also remove occupation from the page of the passport, but it appears in the system. That is what we are going to implement in the new generation,” he added.