The issuance of passports will be undertaken by the National Printing Office

The director of the National Printing Press, Viviana Leonassured that the Entity will take charge of issuing Colombian passports starting in September 2025.

The official emphasized the date, clarifying that the Printing Press will not assume this function immediately, because “It is in the third stage. The third stage is the one that starts in September 2025“.

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The director arrived at the new Congress building in the framework of a political control debate against the Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillowho was summoned to answer questions regarding the production of the documents required for traveling abroad. However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs did not attend due to prior agenda in Cali.

The official did not answer how the transition process will be until September 2025 and assured that this is “A question for the chancellor“.

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Both the Chancellery and the National Printing Office signed last May an agreement inter-administrative agreement for the issuance of passports. In this agreement, the Printing House would subcontract to third parties. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, has said that it will involve a private strategic partner and a government one.

Among the countries that have shown interest are: Austria, Germany, United States, Belgium, Canada and Mexico. In fact, some of these have already sent their offers.

Passport

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In June, MurIllo said that working with this entity implies “All technical, technological and financial cooperation to strengthen mainly the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migración Colombia, the National Printing Office and other entities that have to do with the issuance of passports and documents of that nature.“.

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He also assured that with that government partner There will be support for “the nine processes involved in issuing passports. Of those nine processes, seven will be handled by the State due to the delicate nature of handling the information. They will be handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in association with that government and the National Printing Office, while today they are handled by the private partner (Thomas Greg)“.

Regarding the private partnerThis will be linked to the National Government with which the agreement is signed and will have a single task: printing the card.This requires plants and infrastructure, which the National Printing Office will have in the future. But while this is happening, we will have a private partner.“, the chancellor commented.

Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo.

Likewise, there is already an agreement with Colombian migrationwho would support the supervision of the quality of the documents.

It is worth mentioning that the Foreign Ministry had already proposed that the new scheme come into effect in August 2025, although this Tuesday the director of the Printing Office clarified that it will be done in September.

PORTFOLIO
*With information from EL TIEMPO – POLITICS