The Seychelles passport from abroad

Who issues it, and where

The Seychelles passport is issued by Immigration and Civil Status in Victoria. The catch for the diaspora is that not every mission abroad can print one. A handful of larger Seychelles missions handle full passport issue, while most consulates and honorary consuls take your application, verify your identity and forward the file to Victoria. Before you travel to a consulate, check the consulates directory and call ahead to ask whether that post issues passports or only forwards applications.

The verification step that trips people up

A passport is only ever issued to someone already recorded as a citizen, so the application is checked against the civil register before anything is printed. If your birth was never registered in Seychelles, or the names and dates on your foreign documents do not match the Seychelles record, the passport stalls until that is fixed. This is why, for anyone claiming through descent, the birth registration and citizenship certificate come first and the passport second. Get the record right, and the passport is straightforward.

Biometric passports

Seychelles passports are biometric. That means part of the process, the capture of your photograph and fingerprints to the required standard, generally has to be done at a post equipped for it, which is another reason to confirm in advance where you can be fully processed rather than assuming the nearest consulate can do everything.

When you are stuck without one

If your passport is lost, stolen or expired and you need to travel, you are not stranded. A Seychelles consulate can issue an emergency travel document, a one-time paper that gets you home or to a mission that can issue a full passport. Report a lost or stolen passport to the local police first, keep the report, and contact the nearest mission. What consular staff can and cannot do for you is set out in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular assistance pages.

Who to ask

For passport requirements, fees and where you can be processed, contact Immigration and Civil Status (tel +248 4293636, m.laporte@gov.sc) or your nearest Seychelles mission. The official requirements are on the ICS passport page.