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Law on Passports [in Afghanistan] - 1939

LAW OF PASSPORTS IN AFGHANISTAN

15 Mizan 1318

ARTICLE 1: All Afghan subjects entering or leaving Afghanistan are obliged to obtain a passport according to the terms of these regulations and submit it to relative officials for checking. No one will be allowed to leave or enter without a passport.

REMARK: Border points and airports of entry and exit will be designated by the Government.

ARTICLE 2: Persons residing outside of Afghanistan who claim to be Afghan subjects, but enter into the country without a passport must explain the reasons why they did not obtain one. After their citizenship is verified, they may be allowed to enter after the proper authorization. Those who cannot clarify their identity, will be investigated quickly. If their citizenship is proved, they will be allowed to enter, otherwise they will be turned back.

ARTICLE 3: Contents of a passport:

1. Name
2. Name of father and mother
3. Residence
4. Birthplace
5. Date of birth
6. Facial features and any identifying marks
7. Occupation
8. Destination
9. Reason for traveling
   

ARTICLE 4: Passports will be published, containing items of Article (3), by the Ministry of Interior, Passports cost 2 Afghanis to officials, and 20 Afghanis to others.

REMARK: The passport contains the picture of the bearer.

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ARTICLE 5: Passports will be issued upon verification of citizenship by the following authorities:

Inside the country - by governors, marshals and commanders.

Abroad - by embassies, consulates and officials assigned for visa, and authorized representatives of the foreign ministry.

The above-mentioned authorities are obliged to investigate those who request passports. Those who have no citizenship papers must be given a passport only after their citizenship has been proven.

ARTICLE 6: Individuals who are under 18 years of age, who do not submit a written permission from their parents or guardians, will not be given a passport for exit.

ARTICLE 7: Female subjects of Afghanistan not accompanied by their legal relatives, and married women who are not accompanied by their husbands, or who do not have written permission of their husband, (with the exception of travel to religious shrines), cannot get a passport.*

AMENDED: as Saur 1328

ARTICLE 8: Those who are under police surveillance or whose travel abroad is forbidden by the court, may not receive a passport.

ARTICLE 9: Officials and government employees whose trips have not been properly authorized, may not receive a passport.

ARTICLE 10: A passport is valid for one year form the date of issuance, and it can be used for several trips.

ARITCLE 11: Afghan subjects who wish to return to Afghanistan, but cannot pay the passport fee will be given a passport free of charge after confirmation by (2) Afghan subject or one who is in an official capacity. Such passports would be cancelled after the bearer’s entry into Afghanistan.

*AMENDED: According to Article (7), female subjects of Afghanistan can only travel if accompanied by their husbands and legal relatives; but in case the husbands and legal relative cannot travel with them for some reason, they can get separate passports upon the written permission of the husbands or relatives. Those who have no husbands or legal relatives, and are traveling for religious purposes will be given individual passports according to separate instructions. XXXX Saur 1325

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ARTICLE 12: Children, and grand children of bearer, also mother, sister, wife and servants and other relatives accompanied by bearer will be included in one passport.

ARTICLE 13: VISA

An Afghan subject who wishes to travel back to Afghanistan with a passport that is still valid or make a trip abroad from Afghanistan, is obliged to submit his passport to authorities mentioned in Article (5), for a visa.

ARTICLE 14: In places where there are no consulates or authorized officials to grant a visa, the visa will be given by authorized border officials.

AMENDMENT: (Translation omitted).

18 Mizan 1346

ARITCLE 15: DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT

Diplomatic passports are specifically XXXX to the following persons:

1. Royal family*
2. Prime Minister and Ministers.
3. Mallis deputies and directors.
4. Ambassadors, Ministers plenipotentiary, charge XXXX affairs, secretaries, military attaches, and political couriers.
5. Consuls general who hold diplomatic privileges in the zones of their missions.
6. Afghan representatives going to international conferences.
7. Persons sent abroad for official duties by the Government.
8. The wives of above-mentioned persons and their children who are under 18 years of age.
   

ARTICLE 16: A diplomatic passport and its visa inside the country, will be issued by the Foreign Ministry; and abroad, by the embassies. In places with no embassy, with the approval of the Foreign Ministry, the consulates general can issue the diplomatic passport and visa. Diplomatic passports are free of charge.

but XXXX Republican Decree Mo.1, 6 Assed 1352.

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ARTICLE 29: The Law of Visas and Residence of Foreign Nationals, 3 Assed 1314, is repealed.

ARTICLE 30: It is the duty of all the ministries concerned to act in accordance with the provisions of this law.

ARTICLE 31: The provisions of this law shall come into effect four months after the date of its publication.

ARTICLE 32: AMENDMENT: The following persons are excused from obtaining residence permits. The registration of their passport in the authoritative departments shall be regarded as residence permit:

1. Members of the office of a major embassy or embassies and their families.
   
2. Private employees of the chief political agent who lives with the chief at the same building and has the citizenship of the state to which the chief belongs provided he and his family do not hold any job or profession outside the embassy, except to serve the chief political agent.
   

Note: The passport of the aforesaid persons shall be registered in the Foreign Ministry.

1. Members of the office of the general consulate, consulate and vice consulate, being official and professional, provided they are subjects of the state in which the consulate belongs, and they and their families do not hold any business outside the consulate establishment.
   

Note: The passports of the abovementioned persons shall be registered in the security commanding office, in the place of their work.

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Note: The above-mentioned rules shall be applied to the subjects of those countries where Afghan subjects of the above classes benefit from the same rights. Otherwise the subject of the aforesaid country shall be treated in a reciprocal manner.

The above rule shall be given effect from the date of the implementation of the Law of Travel and Residence of Foreign Subjects in Afghanistan.

Section 2, Amendment dated 17 Dalw 1324.

***************

AMENDED: 17 Dalw 1324, 20 Qaus 1325, 28 Hamal 1326, 3 Jausa 1326, 10 Jausa 1328, 4 Saur 1344 (republished 5 Saratan 1344), 31 Sunbola 1349.

AMENDMENT: According to the rule of the amendment, the authoritive departments are allowed to issue, when needed, multi-journey visa for the member and staff of the foreign firms, traveling in Afghanistan on the basis of regulations and special agreements. The validity of this visa is for six months and its fee is seventy-five Afghanis. 20 Quas 1325.

AMENDMENT: Foreign subjects having obtained residence visa in Afghanistan who travel abroad for their own purposes and return, are not bound to re-obtain a visa and pay a fee until the expiration of their residence visa. They need only to obtain an exit visa when they leave and obtain a form from the police for entering the remaining period of residence, fixed in their passport, when they return. 27 Hamal 1326.

AMENDMENT: Article 1

After the date of implementation of this amendment, the rules contained in Articles 9, 10, 14, 15, 16 of the Foreign Subjects

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