Maldives Immigration has announced that non-electronic passports will be issued temporarily due to delays in the arrival of passport booklet stock used for ordinary electronic passports.

Immigration said the shipment delay has affected the stock of booklets required to print Maldivian ordinary electronic passports. As a result, from tomorrow onwards, all applicants seeking ordinary passports will be issued ordinary non-electronic passports as part of efforts to manage the remaining stock.

The authority noted that the non-electronic passports comply with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards and are machine-readable passports issued with a five-year validity period.

Immigration also stated that while an ordinary electronic passport costs MVR 1,000, the fee for an ordinary non-electronic passport will be MVR 600.

In addition, the authority said individuals issued with non-electronic passports during this period would be allowed to obtain an ordinary electronic passport later without paying a cancellation fee before the passport expires, unlike previous practice in similar situations.