Ordinary passport
ፓስፖርት
Guide
Ethiopian passport types and the e-passport
Background on the booklet itself — what the four series mean, what the electronic data page holds, and which number is which.
Service passport
የአገልግሎት ፓስፖርት
Diplomatic passport
የዲፕሎማቲክ ፓስፖርት
Alien's passport
የውጭ ሀገር ሰዎች ፓስፖርት
Illustrations, not reproductions. Cover colours and wording follow the published series; layout is simplified.
Illustration only. Field positions are simplified and nothing real is reproduced.
The four series
The ordinary passport is the blue one, issued to citizens for private travel, study, work and residence abroad. It is what almost everyone applies for, and it is what the published collection lists are overwhelmingly about.
The maroon service passport goes to officials travelling on government business, and the green diplomatic passport to diplomats and senior officials. The grey alien’s passport is a travel document issued to certain foreign nationals and stateless residents rather than to Ethiopian citizens.
Green is the diplomatic cover, not the ordinary one — a common mix-up. If you applied as an ordinary citizen, your passport is blue.
The electronic passport
Ethiopia has moved to an ICAO-compliant biometric passport. The distinguishing features are a contactless chip, a durable data page, and a machine-readable zone that border systems can read optically. The international e-passport symbol is printed on the cover of booklets that carry a chip.
The chip holds the same biographic details that are printed on the data page, together with the facial image, so that a border officer can verify that the printed page has not been altered.
What the data page carries
- Passport number, booklet type and issuing country code
- Full name, following Ethiopian naming convention
- Date and place of birth, sex and nationality
- Date of issue, date of expiry and issuing authority
- Photograph, signature and the machine-readable zone
Application number vs passport number
These are two different things, and mixing them up is the most common reason a search here returns nothing.
The application number is issued when you apply. It is printed on the receipt you were given, and it is the number that appears on the published collection lists — so it is the number this site searches. Newer numbers look like BRPP5260094321P; older ones look like A08718871.
The passport number is printed inside the finished booklet. You only have it once the passport is in your hand, which means it can never appear on a list of passports waiting to be collected.
Ethiopian names on the lists
Ethiopian naming does not use an inherited family surname. A person carries a given name, then their father’s name, then their grandfather’s name. The published lists reflect this, and in practice they are ordered by the grandfather’s name even where the column headings suggest otherwise.
This is why a name search here uses your first and father’s name together — the same structure the lists themselves use. With an application number, adding your first name simply confirms the record is yours.
Validity, fees and requirements
Fees, processing tiers and what you need in order to apply are set by the Immigration and Citizenship Service and change from time to time. This site does not publish them, because an out-of-date figure here would be worse than none at all. Check the Service’s own publications for current terms before you apply or pay anything.
Beware of brokers
Checking whether your passport is ready is free, both here and from the Service itself. Nobody needs to be paid to look it up for you, and no legitimate service will ask for your payment details to tell you a collection date.