Maldivian passport

The first Travel Document to a Maldivian was issued on 1950s, by the Ministry of External Affairs. It was named as the Maldivian Pass, which was only valid to travel between Maldives and Ceylon. It is said that the reason for introducing this travel document was for trade purposes, precisely for fish exporting .

The first Maldivian passport was issued from the High Commission of the United Kingdom, based at Colombo, Sri Lanka. This series was known as the British Passport, and it enacted all the Maldivians to travel to abroad as a "British protected person of the Maldives islands" .

This British Passport was replaced by introducing the first Maldivian Passport on 20 April 1964 .

The Ministry of External Affairs issued this passport, which was the first ever passport issued from an authority of the Maldivian government, as a result of the independence demands from a British protectorate, by the former Prime Minister of Maldives, Ibrahim Nasir .

Passport was again transformed on 12 December 1965, soon after the Maldives reclaimed independence on 26 July 1965. This series was issued by the newly inaugurated Passport Office of Maldives, the office designated for immigration control of Maldives. The total cost of this passport was MVR 4 .

The second series of the passport issued after the independence, the ‘A’ series, was introduced on 1975. This was replaced by the 2nd issue of ‘A’ series of passport in 1980, which was the first issue after the Passport Office was rebranded to Department of Immigration & Emigration. The 3rd and 4th issue of the ‘A’ series was issued on 1990 and 2003 respectively .

The first electronic passport, the 1st generation e-passport (also known as biometric passport or digital passport) was introduced on the 42nd anniversary of the Maldives independence, which was on 26 July 2007. E-passport has an embedded electronic microprocessor chip which contained biometric information. This information was used to authenticate the identity of the passport holder .

Electronic passports are issued to Maldivians aged 10 years and above. An electronic passport is issued only to the applicant. Additionally, applicants between 10 - 18 years of age needs to attend Maldives Immigration with one of the applicant’s parent.

Application can be made for electronic passports with either 32 pages or 48 pages. A passport with 32-pages costs MVR 1,000 and 48-pages costs MVR 1,500. Validity of all types of passports are 5 years. If the applicant is under the age of 18, a passport can be issued by the request of either a parent, or by a legal guardian

Non-electronic passports are issued to children below the age of 10 years, applicants residing abroad; who are therefore unable to attend to collect the passport, applicants who are above 70 years of age and are unable to attend to collect the passport, and for an applicant with permanent illness/disability or temporary medical condition which renders an applicant who is about to travel, unable to walk or have difficulty in walking

Emergency passports are mostly issued in medical cases when the applicant is unable to attend to Immigration, due to the critical condition of an illness. In addition to the application form, doctor’s letter will be needed with the explanation of the medical condition of the applicant. These passports are issued even during non-working hours and during public holidays

On 11 October 2017,[1] the Maldives introduced a novel multi-application card that, as well as being a passport, can be used for payments, national ID requirements, as a driving licence, health card, and insurance card.[2][3][4] Known as the Passport Card, the document was developed by Maldives Immigration in conjunction with Hamburg-based DERMALOG Identification Systems GmbH.[5][6]

The new card claims to be the world’s first bankcard made of polycarbonate material with a dual-interface chip for contactless and contact card reading.[7][8] Certified by the Bank of Maldives as well as by MasterCard, this allows it to be used internationally for payment like any other MasterCard.[9]

The government anticipates that additional services and information will be added in the future such as eTransport, academic information, and medical information.[10]

The card contains biometric data[11] of the cardholder, such as fingerprints and these features allow the Maldives Passport Card to be used as a regular passport at all borders of the Maldives, including its new eGates.[12] The Passport Card conforms to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) international passport standards[13] and has "PCMDV" as the first 5 characters in its machine readable zone MRZ).[14]

Countries and territories with visa-free entries or visas on arrival for holders of regular Maldivian passports

In 2018, Maldivian citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 83 countries and territories, ranking the Maldivian passport 59th in the world according to the Visa Restrictions Index.

• Visa requirements for Maldivian citizens

The current passport, the 2nd generation e-passport, was launched on 24 January 2016. <ref>

• Maldives Immigration