Rwandans living in foreign countries without national ID cards or passports will now be able to apply and get the identity documents from embassies, according to the Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration (DGIE).
Announcing the new development on Friday, June 28, the DGIE said that a system that allows Rwandans abroad to apply and acquire national ID cards and e-passports had been developed in collaboration with the National Identification Agency (NIDA) and Irembo, the web portal for government services.
“This was implemented to facilitate the Rwandan community abroad without national ID cards,” the DGIE said.
“The biometric data will be captured from the nearest embassy and be used for the processing of both National ID and e-Passport.”
Before the newly announced development, an applicant’s biometric data was collected from the embassy and sent to the DGIE in Rwanda, which then had to mail the identity document to the embassy for distribution.