PARIS, March 28: The US Embassy in Paris has issued instructions with regard to passports held by American expatriates around the world, telling them that a major new change is in the works with regard to the passports they hold.

According to the instruction, beginning on April 8, American citizens residing or travelling abroad who require issuance of a US passport will be issued the latest, state-of-the-art passport incorporating a photo-digitized image and other enhanced security features.

The new high-tech passports will be issued at the National Passport Center (NPC) located in Portsmouth, NH, which will distribute them through US embassies and consulates around the world.

From April 8, the embassies and consulates will be in charge only of the issuance of “passports for emergencies requiring immediate travel,” these to be limited in validity, and cannot be extended, as passport holders “will be required to exchange their limited-validity passports for a full-validity photo-digitized passport upon completion of their emergency travel, either through passport facilities in the US or US embassies and consulates abroad.”

As for the renewal of existing old-style passports, these can be taken, or mailed, to US embassies and consulates around the world who will forward the approved passport applications to the National Passport Center by express mail and the new passports will be returned in the same way. Processing time from application to delivery for the new passports should be no more than 10 days.

An embassy spokesman commenting on the new passports said: “While the added document security will benefit all Americans, especially those overseas residents who are frequent travellers, we recognize that this procedure will take more time than our previous same-day service.”

“As this new security initiative is introduced, let’s work together to make the transition smooth and effective. We ask that you take the time to please check your passports to see when they expire and be sure that you apply for replacements well in advance.”