Chief immigration Officer Hudson Mankhwala said the recent hike of passport fees will work as an automatic sieve that will see only serious applicants of passports applying thereby reducing congestion that has been a long time hiccup at its premises.

Mankhwala said this in an interview with the State controlled radio (MBC 1).

In his speech, Mankhwala said the increase was supposed to be done long time ago to meet production costs of the passports.

Meanwhile some of the concerned people who took the on Facebook expressed shock over the increase, saying the increase favours only those people who are rich.

The hike saw the ordinary Passport which lasts for 20 days to be processed to jump from MK15,100 to MK48, 500
.
The Express type of passports is now at MK58, 500 from MK25, 100 and takes 5 days to get done.

The Emergency passport has been hiked from MK35, 100 to MK85, 500 and takes 2 days to be effective.

On the other hand, the Diplomatic passport which takes 5 days to be processed is now at MK85, 000 to MK30, 100.

The hike has also seen the Service type of passport be pegged at MK55, 500 from MK19, 500 and takes 5 days to get fully processed.