The transition to the Mexican electronic passport began on October 6 when Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard delivered the first copies to five beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
At the Coyoacán Delegation in Mexico City and at the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles, California, the first Mexican electronic passports were delivered. The Ministry of Foreign Relations (SRE) explains that this new passport is the result of a two-year work process under strict transparency rules.
The new electronic passport has a system that stores the bearer's information in a more secure way and will prevent its falsification. The document is still printed in physical notebooks, however, now it includes a polycarbonate sheet where the chip that stores all the information of the person is located.
This transition process towards the new electronic passports is expected to conclude in January 2022, when all consular offices can issue it.
The consul general of Mexico in Los Angeles, Marcela Celorio Mancera, the general director of Consular Services, Jaime Vázquez Bracho Torres, delivered the first five electronic passports to young Mexican DACA beneficiaries, which Celorio referred to as a document that goes to provide security and protection to the Mexican community in Los Angeles and throughout the United States.
On the other hand, for the development of the passport, the SRE had the support of the United Nations Office for Project Services and the Secretariat of Public Function of Mexico. "Continuing with the joint works with the awarded consortium that allowed the incorporation of new technologies to provide the public service with greater efficiency in its operational and regulatory processes," explained Carlos Candelaria, general director of the Passport Offices about this collaboration.
Additionally, for the passports of minors, a print has been added on the first page that contains the information about the minor's patria protesd. It is the first official document to present this type of information.
