The Nationality and Travel Documents department of Ministry of Interior held a press conference recently to introduce the new e-passport system to the media.

Brig. Salih Khamis Al kubaisi, Director of IT Dept. in the MoI, Col.Abdullah Saa'd Al Buainain, Director of Nationality and Travel documents dept. and Major. Muhammad Majid Al Sulaiti were present in the press conference.

"The issuance of new Qatari e-passport comes in the framework of Ministry of Interior's continuous effort to convoy with the latest technology for the issuance of passports and also as fruit of joint venture between IT and Nationality and Travel documents departments in the Ministry of Interior. The issuance of new Qatari e-passport has started since Sunday 20/4/2008. By this new initiative, the State of Qatar has become the first country that issues this kind of passports all over the GCC countries in particular and in Arab countries in general" Brig. Salih Al Kubaisi, the IT director in the beginning of the press conference said.

Talking about the specification of the new e-passport Brig. Al Kubaisi said " The new e-passport contains an electronic chip that carries biometric data ( Photo of passport holder and written information about the passport's owner in Arabic and English according to the specifications of the International Civil Aviation Organization in addition to many other safety and protective measures like materials from which the papers of passport are made, a number of secret inks and other visible and non visible specialties. The content of the electronic chip is protected against illegal reading by internationally recognized protective measures as well as the coding of data in the time of issuance has been done using a digital certification which is also internationally recognized. The data of the chip cannot be read from far as the page of passport's data should be read first to reach to the data of the chip. One of the main benefits of the e-passport is the contents of the e-chip can be read in most of the countries as the world is moving towards converting the normal passport to the electronic one".

After that, Col. Abdullah Saa'd Al Buainain, Director of Nationality and Travel Documents Department said "The new e-passport has been receiving good response from the Qatari citizens and the department has eased the procedures to get this new e-passport. The procedures to get e-passport is the same procedures as before when applying for a passport.

After that, Col. Al Buainain added that " There is noting new in the procedures, but the citizens should know when they apply for a new e-passport that the passport has some specifications and they should take care of that". The basic requirement of the photo for e-passport is the applicant should come to take the photo by the special machine to collect the biometric information or he should bring the photos according to the international standard's specifications which have been issued to all studios working in the country. The issuance fee for the e-passport is QR 100 and QR 400 will be charged in case of issuing a new one instead of a lost one it means the same amount according to old passport. At present the applications are received from applicants for issuing e-passport for first time or who apply for renewal of expired passport or who apply for issuing a new one instead of lost one.

Commenting on the offices for application, Major Muhammed Majid Al Sulaiti said " The nationality and travel document department has arranged facilities for the collection of biometric data at Al Khor, Al Musaimeer and Al Wakrah offices in addition to the main office and some more biometric data collection points will be arranged soon at commercial centers.

In the end of the press conference, Col. Al Buainain showed the modern machine for issuing new Qatari e-passport.