The ECOWAS passport is a common passport document for several countries in

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

. Member states of ECOWAS — the

Economic Community of West African States The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as in French and Portuguese) is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in ...

— have implemented the common design for the passport. It was created to facilitate the intra-regional travel of member states' citizens for periods of unlimited duration. The passport can be used within the sub-region and is also recognized for international travel.

Types

There are three types of ECOWAS passports: ; Ordinary passport : These passports are issued to citizens and are intended for occasional travel, such as vacations and business trips. They contain 32 pages, and are valid for 5 years. ; Official/Service passport : These passports are issued to officials attached to government institutions who have to travel on official business. ; Diplomatic passport : Issued to diplomats and consuls for work-related travel, and to their accompanying dependents.

Common design features

Overall format

Paper size Paper size standards govern the size of sheets of paper used as writing paper, stationery, cards, and for some printed documents. The ISO 216 standard, which includes the commonly used A4 size, is the international standard for paper size. I ...

B7 ( ISO/IEC 7810 ID-3, 88 mm × 125 mm) *32 pages (passports with more pages can be issued to frequent travelers) *Colour of cover:

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

and burgundy (depending on type of passport)

Cover

The

(ECOWAS) itself does not issue passports, but the passports issued by its 15 members share certain design features. These include the

coloured cover for ordinary passports,

colored cover for service passports, and burgundy colored cover for diplomatic passports, as well as common security features and

biometrics Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics. Biometric authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used to identify i ...

.ECOWAS Passport
''rowacacancersl.webs.com''. Additional common features include the inscription of the words ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES (ECOWAS), French: COMMUNAUTÉ ÉCONOMIQUE DES ÉTATS DE L’AFRIQUE DE L’OUEST (CEDEAO), depending on the language of the issuing state. While the emblem of the ECOWAS community is emblazoned on the cover page of some passports, it is possible to notice some ECOWAS passports of certain countries with the respective state’s emblem on the cover instead. The name of the issuing country is usually the only distinguishing factor between passports issued by the various sovereign nations of the sub-region. Near the bottom of the passport cover, depending on the official language of the issuing state, the words PASSPORT, French: PASSEPORT are inscribed on ordinary passports, OFFICIAL PASSPORT or SERVICE PASSPORT, French: PASSEPORT DE SERVICE on service passports; and DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT, French: PASSEPORT DIPLOMATIQUE on diplomatic passports.

Identification page

The following information is printed on the identification page, in both English and French: # Type # Code of Issuing State # Passport No. # Surname # Given name(s) #

Nationality Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the ...

# Date of birth # Sex # Place of birth # Date of issue # Date of expiry # Authority

Overview of passports issued by the ECOWAS states

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecowas Passport Economic Community of West African States Passports