The Tanzanian passport is issued to citizens of The United Republic of Tanzania for international travel. The Immigration Department is responsible for the issuance of Passports for the purpose of international travel. The Immigration Department falls under the Tanzanian Ministry of Home Affairs (In Kiswahili: Wizara ya Mambo ya Ndani ya Nchi). This passport is issued only to the citizens of Tanzania. There are three types of Passports, which are Ordinary, Service and Diplomatic. As of January 2018, Tanzania began issuing the new East African format ePassport, in line with the East African Community integration plans. Features of the Tanzanian ePassport; –Electronic chip holding the same information as the old model passport –Enhanced Security features. –Biometric identifier –Digital photograph of the passport holder The new ePassport is issued under different colors for Ordinary (navy blue), Diplomatic (red) and Service (green). The new ePassport has been made available to all Tanzanians seeking passports for international travel from January 2018. The old ordinary passport will be in use until January 2020 when it will be officially retired. History Before issuing the new ePassports, the Passport Control Authority of Tanzania used to issue Machine-readable Passports. The previous model before the machine readable version, was designed in the 1970s, before computer technology became widely available, hence the holder's data was typewritten or even handwritten on it. In contrast to the current ePassports, the previous Ordinary Tanzanian passport was green in color, while the Diplomatic Passport was Black and Service Passport was blue. The new Tanzanian ePassport complies with the ICAO standards. When the passport was first issued, the holder's fingerprints, signature and photograph would be digitally acquired and stored in a database, but only the holder's digital picture was coded in the physical passport, in a two-dimensional barcode. The latter, as well as the holder's personal identification data and his or her picture are directly laser-printed on the passport. Validity The Tanzanian passport is usually valid for a period of ten years from the date of issuance. Once expired it must be renewed in order to continue travelling. However, it can be renewed a few months before expiring so as not to inconvenience frequent travellers. Languages Details inside the passport are provided in Swahili (the national language) and English, which are the two de facto official languages. There are captions in the data page that are translated in these two languages as well. Description