The EAC electronic passports.

South Sudan and Rwanda have till August to start issuing to their citizens the East African Passport.

In April last year, the EAC six partner states, including South Sudan were directed to start issuing the new East African machine readable Electronic- Passports by January this year after preparedness of each partner state was considered.

The e-Passport is expected to boost free movement of people across the East African region and facilitate implementation of the Common Market protocol.

It will have diplomatic, service and ordinary categories, different from the current machine readable passports issued by the partner states.

The e-Passport will be valid for up 10 years while the diplomatic passport and service passport will be valid according to the holder’s specific term of the service.

“The chair of the council of ministers of East Africa gave South Sudan and the Republic of Rwanda chance until August to operate and print these African passports,” said Kim Gai, a South Sudanese representative to East African Legislative Assembly.

“We have to ask the Minister of Interior of the Republic of South Sudan to issue and operate the passports.”

The deadline was announced during a sitting where the EAC budget of 99.5 million dollars was passed.