From today, citizens applying for passports will no longer have to go through the hassle of filling out forms and submitting the scanned documents. It is made possible with the integration of the Bhutan National Digital Identity (NDI) wallet and eKYC with the national passport system. The eKYC or electronic Know Your Customer service was launched in Thimphu today. With this, cross-sectoral verification of citizen credentials would be replaced by the integration of Bhutan NDI with the passport system.
There is not much change in the process. You visit the G2C website and apply. You can choose to log in with NDI, after which you will have to scan a QR code. Within a few seconds, your details will appear along with photographs and an e-signature. Security clearance is also linked to the system.
Then choose the passport category and just click submit.
“With the Bhutan NDI, it ensures that the credentials that you present are issued by the trusted authorities, which means the service delivery agent doesn’t have to verify those credentials again. This improves the efficiency of service delivery,” said Tshewang Chojay, the chief ICT officer with GovTech Agency.
Today, the passport office issues more than 250 passports every day. Until today, people had to print forms, fill them out, and upload scanned copies.
Some applications often get rejected.
“In the present system, the number of passport rejections is very high because the photographs and signatures are not as per the specifications. So, we have to reject several times. Now with this eKYC system, as it is a passport through NDI wallet, people can upload their authorised photographs and signatures as per the standard, and they can directly upload that for passport application, whereby we are expecting that the number of application rejection rate would be drastically reduced,” said Sonam Pelzom, the deputy chief of the Consular Affairs, MoFAET.
With features to share pre-verified signatures and photographs while applying for passports, the eKYC service aims to facilitate secure, instant, and paperless identity verification. People can still apply without using the NDI. Furthermore, an e-passport initiative worth Nu 400 M is also in the pipeline.
In the past two years, more than 64,000 passports were issued. As of March this year, nearly 8000 passports were issued.
With the increasing number of people applying for passports, this initiative marks another step in expanding digital identity services, making the process faster and more efficient.
Kelzang Chhophyel
Edited by Tandin Phuntsho
