Common Passport and Single Tourist Visa inside EAC: a pending question

The implementation of a common passport and a single tourist visa within the EAC region is being analysed and will be probably operational very soon –by Diane Uwimana

Alexis Nyongera: “Even if Burundi is not as advanced as other EAC Partner countries, our passport is the best in the community regarding its biometric quality.” ©Iwacu

Becoming one people as well as one destiny is one of the EAC objectives to develop policies and programs aiming at widening and deepening cooperation among the Partner States in political, economic, social, cultural, research and technological, defence, security, legal and judicial matters for their mutual benefits.
“With the common passport, EAC citizens are going to be considered as full East African members and this will increase and accelerate the EAC integration into its all phases. And the single tourist visa will increase the number of tourists as they are going to pay fees only at the first entry to get into one EAC country member,” points out Alexis Nyongera, the Director of the Department of Productive Sector in the Ministry of EAC Affairs.

He indicates that the question of effective implementation of both documents is being studied very carefully. “From the 2nd to 6th July 2013, there was an EAC ministerial summit to update and accelerate the process. At the end of the summit, Ministers underlined that there were some countries which were delaying in the process,” highlights Nyongera.

Moreover, the Director of the Department of Productive Sector mentions that the EAC Partner States which are more advanced may use the two documents as it is stipulated in the article 7 (e) of the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC: “ the principles that should govern the practical achievement of the objectives of the community shall include one of the variable geometry which allows for the progression in the cooperation among groups within the community for wider integration schemes in various fields and at different speeds .”

Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda are far ahead and envisage using the single visa within their region. The revolutionary proposal of the Single visa was presented by Rwanda’s delegation to the EAC’s technical meeting last week, seeking to boost the flow of tourists into the EAC region through the removal of visa barriers, according to the tourism review revealed by Trademark East Africa.

According to the proposal, tourists only need to use the same visa they will acquire at the point of entry into EAC region, including Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda, to access all the three countries without paying any extra fees or stopping into other embassies.
“Even if Burundi is not as advanced as other EAC Partner countries, our passport is the best in the community regarding its biometric quality”, explains Nyongera.
Then, he reminds that other countries including Burundi, should undertake activities to further up the objectives of the community as the Partner States may from time to time decide to undertake some goals and steps in common, as it is stipulated in Article 5(h) of the Treaty.

The use of a common passport and a tourist visa will present many advantages as the colours of each country will be indicated in the documents. “The common passport will be delivered in each partner state in conformity with national laws. The only thing to improve is to adapt international security policies”, clarifies the Director of the Department of Productive Sector in the Ministry of EAC Affairs.
Even though the commission has already agreed on the design of some elements of the two important EAC documents, it is worth highlighting that their cost is under negotiation.