PICA to offer mobile passport processing at Diaspora Convention

THE PASSPORT Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) will be offering a mobile passport service at the Diaspora Convention, which will be held next week at Sunset Jamaica Grande hotel in Ocho Rios, St Ann.

Jennifer McDonald, chief executive officer of PICA, said the special service was being offered to accommodate Jamaicans living in the diaspora, who sometimes find it difficult to access the service because of distance.

"We will be able to accept applications for passports and deliver them before the end of the convention," she said.

McDonald explained that for persons who submit applications at the convention on June 14 and 15, PICA would return the new passports on June 17, providing that all the supporting documents are in order. Meanwhile, she said for applications submitted on the 16th or 17th, the completed passport can be collected at the PICA office at Constant Spring Road in St Andrew.

McDonald said applicants will need a completed passport form, which can be obtained at the agency's website address at www.pica.gov.jm, and the application must be accompanied by an original birth certificate or Jamaican citizenship certificate; a marriage certificate or the divorce decree, if formerly married; deed poll or USA naturalisation certificate, if the person changed their name on naturalisation in the USA.

Applicants will also need two passport photographs, one of which should be certified by the person approving the application form; and a fee of J$6,000.

service lauded

Meanwhile, Earl Jarrett, chairman of the Diaspora Preparatory Committee, has lauded the special service to be offered by PICA. "This mobile service that will be offered by PICA is a welcome one," Jarrett said. "And, I am sure delegates attending the convention will make use of the service."

This is the fourth staging of the convention, which was postponed last year due to civil unrest in Kingston.