Zimbabwean passport
The Zimbabwean passport is issued to citizens of Zimbabwe primarily for international travel. It can also be used for identification in lieu of national registration card or drivers licence. It is the primary proof for citizenship which can be verified through the Ministry of Home Affairs, Registrar Generals office.
| Zimbabwean passport | |
|---|---|
 The front cover of a contemporary Zimbabwean passport. | |
| Type | Passport |
| Issued by |  |
| Purpose | Identification and traveling internationally |
| Eligibility | Zimbabwean citizenship |
| Expiration | 10 years after the date of issue or when used up |
Country Code Errors
The country code in some Zimbabwean passports is wrong. The country code in these passports is listed as ZIM when it should otherwise be ZWE; this has led to frustrating encounters for Zimbabweans with airline, immigration, and border control officials. This error has often led to officials suspecting such passports to be fake. When the passport's MRZ is scanned, the immigration and checking systems fail to recognise the country code ZIM, where as mentioned before the actual ISO code for Zimbabwe should be ZWE.
The MRZ zone starts off with something like PNZIM<<HOLDERSNAME<<. The correct version should read PNZWE<<HOLDERSNAME<<
Airlines such as Emirates and KLM have issued circulars to their staff and published information on their websites highlighting this issue.
Visa requirements
As of 1 January 2017, Zimbabwean citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 59 countries and territories, ranking the Zimbabwean passport 77th in terms of travel freedom (tied Ghanaian passport) according to the Henley visa restrictions index.[1]
See also
- Rhodesian passport (used before 1980)
- Visa requirements for Zimbabwean citizens
- Visa policy of Zimbabwe
References
- "Global Ranking - Visa Restriction Index 2017" (PDF). Henley & Partners. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
