Bangladesh establishes ePassport infrastructure in all embassies
Berlin, September 7, 2021 – The People's Republic of Bangladesh is announcing the enrollment and issuance service for the new forgery-proof ePassport in all its foreign missions worldwide. The required infrastructure is provided by Veridos, a leading global provider of integrated identity solutions. Veridos has already been equipping the domestic passport offices of the People’s Republic with the necessary infrastructure since 2020.
In the presence of a high-level delegation from the Ministry of Home Affairs with Asaduzzaman Khan, Minister of Home Affairs of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, and the Department of Immigration and Passports, Bangladesh inaugurated the new ePassport service at its embassy in Berlin on September 5th. From now on, all Bangladeshi citizens can apply for ePassports in Berlin. In the upcoming months, Bangladeshis will also be able to obtain their electronic passports at all of Bangladesh's other 75 foreign missions.
Veridos is responsible for the entire roll-out of the ePassport infrastructure. This starts with the pre-configuration and shipping of the enrollment and issuance infrastructure to all embassies worldwide. Veridos then sets up the top-notch infrastructure and trains the embassy staff.
Citizens of Bangladesh can apply for their electronic passport through an online portal. For large embassies with a high volume of ePassport requests, the online portal features appointment scheduling for the enrollment of biometric data such as fingerprints, facial image and iris scans. Applicants can thus avoid long waiting times. In the future, there will also be the option to pay passport fees online via the portal.
The ePassport documents are produced and personalized in Dhaka (Bangladesh) and shipped to the embassies. Through the ePassport online portal, applicants can view status updates and check if their ID document is ready for pick-up.
The new ePassport has already been introduced in Bangladesh, in January 2020, replacing the machine-readable passport. Veridos installed the new ePassport infrastructure in all 72 domestic passport offices in Bangladesh in 2020 and 2021. In addition, Veridos is also supplying the People's Republic of Bangladesh with 50 eGates for automated border control at airports and major land crossings.
"We have developed a trusted and successful working relationship with our partner, Veridos, through the implementation of the ePassport infrastructure in Bangladesh. During this new project, which has equipped all our embassies with an ePassport infrastructure, Veridos once again helped us to meet our objectives within an ambitious timeframe," explains Asaduzzaman Khan, Minister of Home Affairs of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.
"We are very excited that our state-of-the-art project also includes equipping all Bangladeshi foreign missions with an ePassport infrastructure. It is another chapter in our close and successful cooperation. The new infrastructure will especially benefit the many Bangladeshis living abroad," emphasizes Andreas Räschmeier, CEO of Veridos.