The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is pleased to inform that the Prime Minister, the Most Honourable Dr. Hubert A. Minnis will officially open the Exuma Passport Office on Friday 12th February, 2021. The Prime Minister will be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Darren Henfield.

The opening of the Exuma Passport Office is a major initiative of the Ministry. It is the first installment of the government’s policy of decentralizing the delivery of passport services to ensure that residents in the Family Islands are not unnecessarily disadvantaged because they live outside of the Capital where these services originate. Exuma residents will no longer have to travel to Nassau, at significant personal expense and inconvenience to collect their passports. They will now be able to access and benefit from the full range of passport services in the island where they reside. The Exuma Passport Office is located in the Administrator’s Office in Georgetown.

The Passport Office currently provides on-line registration for the renewal of epassports for adults and minors. This has greatly reduced the processing time for passports. In spite of this, Family Islanders still have to travel to Nassau to complete their biometrics and collect their passports. To remedy this inequity, the government approved the opening of satellite Passport Offices in Exuma, Inagua, Eleuthera and Long Island. The Inagua Passport Office will open next month, followed shortly thereafter by the opening of offices in Eleuthera and Long Island.

In addition to the opening of these four satellite offices, the Passport Office will take its Mobile Passport Unit to other islands where there are smaller population clusters, to ensure that all citizens throughout the archipelago benefit from these services.