Portuguese passport

Portuguese passport
Portuguese passport
Type	Passport
Issued by	Portugal
First issued	25 May 2009 (current version) ; 28 August 2006 (biometric passport)
Purpose	Identification
Eligibility	Portuguese citizenship
Expiration	2 years for children up to the age of 4; 5 years for all other citizens

Portuguese passports are issued to citizens of Portugal for the purpose of international travel. The passport, along with the National Identity Card allows for free rights of movement and residence in any of the states of the European Union and European Economic Area.

Electronic passport

As of 28 August 2006, the Portuguese government began issuing electronic passports (Template:Lang-pt, commonly abbreviated as PEP) which in addition to containing enhanced security features also contain a contact-less microchip. The microchip includes all the biographic information printed in the passport as well as a digital version of the photograph suitable for use in digital facial recognition. While fingerprint information is obtained when applying for the passport, it is not included in the passport itself. European Union member states will be required to include fingerprint information in their passports by 28 February 2008.

The PEP meets ICAO standards for electronic passports, and contains the biometric passport symbol (a small eye-like image). The PEP meets all the requirements for the United States Visa Waiver Program. The passport is valid for 5 years, and can not be renewed (when it expires a new application needs to be made.) Passports issued before the PEP are still valid as long as they have not passed their dates of expiry.

Appearance

The new electronic passport was designed by Henrique Cayatte. Its final form incorporated a set of thematic elements related to the Portuguese poets, Luís Vaz de Camões and Fernando Pessoa, in both its technical and aesthetic elements. Images were provided by the Portuguese painter Júlio Pomar.

Cover

The regular passport is a deep red colour with golden print, and is written only in Portuguese. Following European Union Standards the passport bears the title União Europeia above the country name and the title of Passaporte. The passport contains images of the Portuguese Coat-of-arms and the circle of twelve golden stars from the flag of the EU.

Security features on the cover include: invisible ink printing which is visible under an ultraviolet light.

Biographic information page

The data page of a contemporary Portuguese (specimen) biometric passport

The biographic information is the first page at the front of the passport. It includes the following information:

Visa Pages

The passport has 32 pages (excluding the biographic information page), however only 28 are suitable for visas (the other 4 pages include the translation of the fields in the biographic page into each of the official languages of the EU)

Security features on the visa pages include: security paper with watermark (the Portuguese Coat of Arms), passport number is perforated into the bottom of all pages.

Languages

Following European Union passport standards, the passport contains all official languages of the EU. The cover is only printed in Portuguese (translations are inside the first page.) The fields on the biographic page are printed in Portuguese, English, and French (in that order), with translations in the last three pages of the passport.

Application

All citizens of Portugal are entitled to a Portuguese passport. In Portugal, applications for a Portuguese passport need to be made in person in particular Civil Registries or Departments of Citizen Cards (one or more existing in every Portuguese parish) or in a Loja do Cidadão (in the Azores, RIAC – Rede Integrada de Apoio ao Cidadão) (English: Citizen's Assistance Centers.) Overseas applications need to be made in person at a consular authority (i.e. embassy, consulate-general, or consulate).

To apply for a passport, an individual needs to provide proof of citizenship i.e. with a valid Bilhete de Identidade or a valid Cartão de Cidadão. Consular authorities may require other pieces of identification (i.e. expired passports) as required by local law. Currently no photograph is required, as a digital photograph is taken at the time of the application.

Visa free travel

Visa requirements for Portuguese citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of Portugal. In 2014, Portuguese citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 172 countries and territories, ranking the Portuguese passport 3rd in the world according to the Visa Restrictions Index.

References

Some of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Portuguese-language Wikipedia article (retrieved 29 November 2006).
http://www.pep.pt/ (Portuguese language) Official website of the Portuguese Electronic Passport.

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