People ask us two things about passports more than anything else: how much, and how long. Here are the answers as of 2026, for Ugandan citizens applying at home or through a mission abroad. Visitors to Uganda can skip this one and read our visa and entry guide instead.
The fees below come from the Uganda Citizenship and Immigration Control (Fees) Regulations, 2021, which the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC) still links to as its fee schedule in 2026. The directorate’s passport pages quote the same main figures. Fees can be revised by new regulations, so check the portal before you pay.
Passport fees at a glance
| Item | Fee (UGX) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary passport, 48 pages | 250,000 | The standard booklet. Same fee for a new passport or a renewal |
| Ordinary passport, 64 pages | 350,000 | Worth it if you travel often and fill pages with visas |
| Express processing | +150,000 | Paid on top of the passport fee |
| Fine for a lost passport | 100,000 | Plus the normal passport fee |
| Mutilated (damaged) passport | 100,000 | Plus the normal passport fee |
| Courier to someone outside Uganda | 10,000 | For passports sent to missions abroad |
| Certification of a passport | 30,000 | An official certified copy, sometimes asked for by employers or embassies |
| Temporary Movement Permit | 10,000 | Single use, valid one month, for neighbouring countries only |
For completeness, the same schedule lists the service passport at UGX 400,000 and the diplomatic passport at UGX 500,000, but those are only issued to people who qualify through their government role. Bank charges are extra on everything.
What it adds up to
- Standard 48-page passport: UGX 250,000
- 48 pages with express: UGX 400,000
- 64 pages with express: UGX 500,000
- Replacing a lost passport: UGX 350,000 (the UGX 250,000 passport fee plus the UGX 100,000 fine). Express is optional: add UGX 150,000, making UGX 500,000, if you need it quickly.
Children’s passports
There isn’t a cheaper child rate. The directorate and its missions quote the same fee structure for minors as for adults, so a child’s 48-page ordinary passport is UGX 250,000. What changes is the paperwork: birth certificate, parents’ IDs and passports, and a consent letter. We go through it in our children’s passport guide.
How long it takes
This is where sources vary, so here’s the range and where each figure comes from.
- Standard, applying in Uganda: the directorate has said about 10 working days.
- Express, applying in Uganda: the directorate has said about 2 working days.
- Renewing through a mission abroad: longer, because passports are printed in Kampala and couriered out. The Washington embassy, for example, says about 14 working days, and notes that express only speeds up the printing, not the shipping.
In practice, allow more than the official figure. Public holidays, system outages and busy seasons all add days. In February 2026, for instance, the Kyambogo collection centre briefly closed after a fibre cut. If you have a fixed travel date inside a month, pay for express.
How and where you pay
You don’t pay at the passport office. When you submit the online form at passports.go.ug, the portal produces a Payment Advice Form, and you pay at one of the banks listed on it. Express is paid as a separate amount. Keep both receipts and bring them to your appointment. Our step-by-step application guide explains the rest.
Good to know
- Pay only the official fees. Anyone offering a “guaranteed” passport for extra cash in a corridor is someone to walk away from.
- The 64-page booklet makes sense for business travellers and anyone heading to countries that use a full page per visa.
- Check validity before you book. Many countries want at least six months left on your passport from the date you arrive. Renewing late usually means paying for express.
- Renew early if you travel for work. A passport with only a few blank pages left can be refused a visa even when it has years of validity, so count your pages as well as your dates.
- Fees here are for Ugandan citizens. Visitors pay for visas, not passports, and those fees are in US dollars.
If you’re planning to travel and want someone to check your documents and timing, talk to us. We handle passport assistance and air tickets from our Kampala office, and we’ll tell you honestly whether your dates are realistic.
