Vanuatuan passport

Vanuatu passport
The front cover of a Vanuatu passport
Issued by	Vanuatu
Type of document	Passport
Purpose	Identification
Eligibility requirements	Ni-Vanuatu citizenship
Cost	VUV 7000/10000/15000 (21/14/3 processing time)

The Vanuatu passport is an international travel document that is issued to Vanuatu citizens.

Ordinary passports have green covers. According to law, the passport is required to show on its cover the coat of arms of Vanuatu as well as the text "Republic of Vanuatu" and "Passport" in both English and French (the two official languages). Inside, the following bilingual text appears:

As late as 2010, Vanuatu passports were still hand-written, presenting the possibility of crime and fraud in their use; New Zealand pledged to use part of its NZ$19 million foreign aid to Vanuatu that year to assist the country in moving to a fully electronic system. The new passports were planned to begin production in December 2010; they would include biometric data, and be manufactured by a German company. The first new biometric passports were issued ahead of schedule in September 2010, to acting minister for internal affairs Paul Telukluk, two twin boys, and a migrant labourer planning to work abroad under a Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme. Telukluk expressed hopes that the new passports would meet international requirements and expand the list of jurisdictions which allowed visa-free entry for Vanuatu citizens.

With the new biometric passports being available, Henri Tamashiro of the passports office stated in late September 2010 that his office planned to cancel all old diplomatic passports within a month.

As of 1 January 2017^[update], Vanuatuan citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 113 countries and territories, ranking the Vanuatuan passport 45th in terms of travel freedom according to the Henley visa restrictions index. Vanuatu signed a mutual visa waiver agreement with Schengen Area countries on 28 May 2015. A mutual visa waiver agreement was signed with Russia on 20 September 2016 and entered into force on 21 October 2016.

Act 3 of 1987 (CAP 108) describes the legal framework for the issuance of ordinary passports. The law requires the Principal Passport Officer to issue passports to all citizens of Vanuatu who apply, as long as he or she is satisfied with the evidence of citizenship that the applicant presents. Under Subsection 12, passports may be confiscated in accordance with emergency regulations declared under Article 69 of the Constitution of Vanuatu, or pursuant to a court order against a person who has been granted bail, remanded in custody or sentenced to a term of imprisonment or a fine. Additionally, Vanuatu does not recognise multiple citizenship; as such, a Vanuatu passport holder who can be shown to have crossed an international border using any other passport may have his Vanuatu passport confiscated.