New Passport Prices Enacted, Effective Today

Ordinary passports, issued within seven working days are now costing US$150, 00 from US$120, 00 effective from today January 03, 2024.

This follows Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube’s proposal last year, to increase them as part of efforts to raise revenue.
The prices were gazetted in Statutory Instrument 1 of 2024, published on Wednesday.

Emergency passports, which take 48 hours to process are now at $250.
Applicants have to pay an extra $20 for a quick response (QR) code for each electronically readable passport.

Ncube had initially planned to charge $200 for ordinary passports and $300 for emergency ones.

The announcement of the fee hikes in November sparked a rush by Zimbabweans to get passports before the New Year, overwhelming the Civil Registry Department, which extended its working hours to cope with the demand.

The Department said the influx in passport applications in December was due to the announced price increase, despite the usually busy festive season.

Registrar General Henry Machiri said last month, many applicants were not collecting their ready passports and urged them to do so.

“We have made appeals before for people to come and collect their passports. Some have responded, but we still have a lot of passports that need to be collected. Let me take this moment and persuade our applicants that those who applied for passports may come and collect them. Those passports are valid. You can still travel with them for the next 10 years,” he said.