Santo Domingo.-The electronic passport that the government plans to issue starting in August seeks to provide Dominicans with a document with higher levels of security and at the same time meet the requirements for the eventual elimination of the Schengen visa for Dominicans.
Among the characteristics of the electronic passport is that it records on a chip the physiological information or behaviors of its holder to identify him, such as a photograph of the face, fingerprints, passport number, full name, sex and identity card number (identity card). ).
In addition, it allows you to speed up border procedures, since it is much faster to read and verify.
Among the functions of the electronic passport is to prevent its falsification, since the chip that this electronic document incorporates contains a code that certifies its authenticity and that even if it were cloned together with the passport, it would be easy to verify that it is a fake, because the Fingerprints that are recorded on it are stored in a government service.
On the other hand, the passport currently used in Dominican territory, the biometric one, is characterized by having a magnetic strip on the identification page that stores the holder’s personal information.
The project will guarantee better procedures so that the new Dominican travel document complies with regulations to ensure its acceptance throughout the world, since there is currently a global standard that incorporates an identification microchip implemented in more than 135 countries.
Requirements
One of the requirements of the European Union for the access of citizens of other countries without the need for a Schengen visa is an electronic passport with high levels of security, which, despite the efforts of the Dominican authorities, continues to have low levels. of acceptance.
In 2023, the decision of the General Directorate of Passports to place a stamp as a measure to extend the validity of that document due to the shortage of notebooks for its renewal represented setbacks to security improvements and constitutes an obstacle to the efforts for Dominicans to able to travel without a visa to Europe.
The Dominican Republic is one of only four countries in Latin America to which the European Union maintains the Schengen visa requirement to enter and in a short time it will be only one of three, since Ecuador is in the final phase of eliminating it.
On repeated occasions, President Luis Abinader has stated that he will continue working to achieve the elimination of the Schengen visa for Dominicans, a request that already has the support of Spain, Portugal and Italy.
Award
Last Monday, President Abinader reported that starting in August the General Directorate of Passports will issue the first biometric passport, after awarding a consortium of companies the process of acquiring the new infrastructure for the travel document, whose project will have an investment of 6,195 million pesos.
The project, which will be self-sustaining, was executed under quality and transparency standards in accordance with the recommendations of the General Directorate of Public Contracting and the provisions and principles established in Law 340-06.
The public procurement process was awarded last December to the Franco-American consortium Emit, made up of the companies Entrust, from the United States; Midas, from the Dominican Republic, and Thales, from France, in addition to having the collaboration of the Zero Bureaucracy Unit, made up of the Ministry of Public Administration (MAP), the National Competitiveness Council (CNC) and the Government Office of Information Technology Information and Communication (OGTIC), as well as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
In September of last year, the General Directorate of Public Procurement “provisionally” suspended the tender for electronic passports after finding “indications of violation” of the principles of participation, equality and free competition during the process.
Decree
In July 2023, the Executive Branch declared, through Decree 282-23, on national security, the contracting, design, supply of notebooks, equipment and maintenance of the technological systems for the issuance of the electronic passport in the country.
With said provision, the Government authorized the General Directorate of Passports to use the exception procedures for national security situations established in numeral 1 of paragraph of article 6 of Law 340-06 on Public Procurement and Contracting and its modifications, and numeral 1 of article 3 of Decree 543-12, which establishes the Regulations for the Application of Law 340-06.
Advantages
– Document
Electronic passport technology allows faster and more efficient processes at border points, reducing waiting time and improving the travel experience, in addition to facilitating entry to other countries.
