Strengthening of the Passport Issuance Process of the Costa Rican Migration and Alien Affairs Office (DGME)

The Costa Rican Migration and Alien Affairs Office (DGME) has been making important efforts to acquire an Integrated System for Security Documents with a view to issuing safer passports and other documents, in line with the ICAO 9303 and INTERPOL regulations.

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the government efforts to strengthen the security of its travel documents, including passport issuance. The project’s specific objectives are:

• To combat alteration, falsification and duplication of passports through structural improvement of premises that allow safer conditions for documents, allowing at the same time an improved process control;
• To verify customers’ identity through counter-checking of biometric data (included in the Costa Rican ID card, which is submitted when requesting a passport); and,
• To improve customer service through structural modifications of the premises.