Caribbean passport

The Caribbean passport is issued to citizens of the Caribbean Community for international travel.

The CARICOM Common Passport

On Friday, January 7, 2005, the Republic of Suriname became the first full member state to officially launch the new bloc "CARICOM Passport". The new passports boast having better security and are also machine-readable. The full member states of the Caribbean Community had agreed to establish a common passport in order to make intra-regional and international travel easier for their citizens. The passports are also thought to save additional costs for member states by using a similar cover design, the designs will also follow newly updated international standards on Passport design.

The second state that released the national CARICOM passport was Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: SVG began issuing the new CARICOM passports around April 2005. On 25 October 2005, St. Kitts and Nevis became the third CARICOM member state to bring the CARICOM passport into operation, making good on its promise to launch it before the end of the year and began Issuance of the document to its citizens on 14 November 2005. [ [http://www.caricom.org/jsp/pressreleases/pres175_05.jsp St. Kitts and Nevis launches CARICOM passport] ]

Antigua and Barbuda had announced that it would begin using the new CARICOM passport format by the middle of 2005.

St. Lucia has also proposed introducing the common passport in early 2007 PDFlink| [http://www.caricom.org/jsp/single_market/csme_summary_key_elements_jun_06.pdf Establishment of CSME: Summary of status of key elements] |54.5 KiB ] and actually introduced it on January 16, 2007. [http://www.caricom.org/jsp/pressreleases/pres22_07.jsp More Member States using the new CARICOM passport ] ]

Trinidad and Tobago had announced that it would begin to issue the new CARICOM passport in June 2006, and then indicated that it would introduce the passport in July 2006 along with Guyana, [http://www.jis.gov.jm/special_sections/caricomnew/lesserKnownFacts.html Lesser Known Facts about the CSM] ] but only finally introduced the passport on January 24, 2007.

Grenada planned to begin issuing the common passport in mid-2006, but started issuing them on January 29, 2007.

Barbados had planned to switch to the common format by late 2006, but then proposed to introduce it by December 31, 2007. Barbados launched the the new common-format passport on October 1, 2007. [http://www.nationnews.com/story/294271679288620.php The Nation Newspaper - New Caricom passport] ]

The Co-operative Republic of Guyana had also announced that it would begin to use the new CARICOM passport format by the middle of 2005, but the introduction was delayed and the new target date was set to July 2006. However, Guyana eventually officially launched the passport on 13 July 2007. [ [http://www.op.gov.gy/stories/070706.html Office of the President of Guyana ] ]

Currently (as of late 2007) ten Member States have introduced CARICOM passports. These states are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

The CARICOM passport creates awareness that CARICOM nationals are nationals of the Community, as well as a specific country.

Future introduction

The expectation is that all the member states will have introduced the CARICOM passport by 2008 when the stock of their old passports is depleted.

Belize is to introduce the passport after its current stock is depleted, but ultimately by December 31, 2007.PDFlink| [http://www.caricom.org/jsp/single_market/csme_summary_key_elements_may_07.pdf Establishment of CSME: Summary of status of key elements (May 2007)] |62.4 KiB ]

Jamaica was expected to institute the passport by January 2007, having recently upgraded its passport to a machine-readable state, but this deadline lapsed; however, Jamaica is now expected to begin issuing the passport before the end of 2007. [http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070217/lead/lead2.html Jamaica Gleaner News - CARICOM passports for Jamaicans before year-end - Saturday | February 17, 2007 ] ]

The Bahamas has not launched the machine-readable passport, and intends to launch the e-passport on December 5th, 2007. [http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/index.php?news_id=4616 Caribbean Net News: Bahamas set to launch e-passports next month ] ]

Passport designs

The three colours of the new passports are:
* Dark Blue for civilians;
* Green for government officials and
* Red for diplomats.

In the case of Suriname, the Passport is adorned with the national symbols for the Republic of Suriname, as well as the CARICOM insignia on its cover. President of the Republic of Suriname Ronald Venetiaan received the first of these new CARICOM passports.

Antigua and Barbuda's design is to feature the country's Coat of Arms and country name as well as the CARICOM logo.

The passports for Suriname were created by the Canadian Banknote Company Ltd. (CBN) Under a five-year programme with a price tag of US$1.5 million. It is believed other member states of CARICOM will now soon follow with the introduction of their own branded version of the national 'CARICOM' Passport.

References