The Jamaican passport is issued to citizens of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

for international travel. The passport is a

CARICOM passport The CARICOM passport is a passport document issued by the 15 member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for their citizens. It can be used both for intra-regional and international travel. The passport was created to facilitate intra-re ...

as Jamaica is a member of the

Caribbean Community The Caribbean Community (CARICOM or CC) is an intergovernmental organization that is a political and economic union of 15 member states (14 nation-states and one dependency) throughout the Caribbean. They have primary objectives to promote econo ...

. Passports are issued through the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA), which was established in 2007 as an "Executive Agency" of the Government of Jamaica. PICA processes all Jamaican passport applications through its offices in Kingston including for all applications received by its High Commissions and consulates abroad. As of May 2023, Jamaican citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 103 countries and territories, ranking the Jamaican passport 47th in terms of travel freedom according to the Henley visa restrictions index. Jamaica began issuing

biometric passports A biometric passport (also known as an e-passport or a digital passport) is a traditional passport that has an embedded electronic microprocessor chip which contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of the pa ...

, also known as e-passports, to Jamaican citizens on March 31, 2023.

Passport statement

Jamaican passports contain on their inside cover the following words in English: :The Minister of Foreign Affairs requests and requires in the name of the

Government of Jamaica Politics in Jamaica takes place in the framework of a representative parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The 1962 Constitution of Jamaica established a parliamentary system whose political and legal traditions closely fol ...

all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford such assistance and protection as may be necessary.

Physical appearance

Regular passports have a black cover with the

Coat of Arms of Jamaica Considered as a legacy from the British with slight modifications, the Jamaican coat of arms was granted to Jamaica in 1661 under Royal Warrant. The original was designed by William Sancroft, then Archbishop of Canterbury. Official description T ...

emblazoned on the centre of the front cover in gold foil. The CARICOM logo and words "Caribbean Community" are centred above, and the words "JAMAICA" and "Passport" along with the international symbol e-passport symbol ( EPassport logo

) are below the arms. The standard passport contains 48 pages. The visa pages are blue and contain images of the coat of arms, an ackee plant, and a red-billed streamertail, the national bird of Jamaica. The CARICOM "CC" logo is at the bottom inside corner. Security features include microprinting, holographic images, UV-visible images, intaglio print, latent images, and watermarks, along with other features. The photo is digitally printed onto the biodata page, and the signature is also digitally added to the biodata page.

Data page

* Photo of the passport holder * Type: PA * Issuing Country: listed as "JAM" for "Jamaica" * Passport No.: 1 letter and 7 numbers * Surname * Given Names * Nationality: "JAMAICAN" * Date of Birth * Sex: "F" for female, "M" for male * Place of Birth * Place of issue * Date of Issue * Issuing Authority * Date of Expiry The information page ends with the Machine Readable Zone.

Changes

On March 31, 2023, the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency of Jamaica announced that it would begin issuing electronic passports. These passports have an embedded chip encoded with the bearer's biographical data, including facial image. The switch to electronic passports brings the Jamaican travel document in line with "more than 150 countries that use E-passports, including 11 of its CARICOM neighbours," according to PICA's CEO Andrew Wynter. These new passports are issued with 48 pages.

References

Government of Jamaica {{Jamaica-stub

Passport statement

Physical appearance

Data page

Changes

See also

References