East African Passport
The East African passport was officially launched on 1 April 1999. The East African passport has been introduced as a travel document to ease border crossing for East Africans. It is valid for travel within the EAC countries only and will entitle the holder to a multi entry stay of renewable six months' validity in any of the countries. The passport is issued in three of the five EAC member states (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania). The passports are available at the Headquarters of the respective Immigration Departments in Nairobi, Kampala and Dar es Salaam. Only East African nationals may apply to be issued with the passports. The passport costs US$10 or the equivalent in EAC currencies. Processing of applications for the passports will normally take two to three weeks. Although the passport is only valid within the EAC, modalities of internationalizing the East African passport were being discussed with the aim towards having a common travel document for East Africans by 2006.
Other measures meant to ease border crossing for East Africans include the issuance of interstate passes (which commenced on 1 July 2003), a single immigration Departure/Entry card (adopted by all three member states), the finalization of harmonized procedures of work permits and the classification process, and the compilation of studies on the Harmonization of Labour Laws and Employment Policies (now in its final stages).
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