According to the article:

> Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma says that the body has agreed “to create the conditions for member states to issue the passport to their citizens, within their national policies, as and when they are ready.”

In the article that the Smithsonian refers to:

> That's only two years away, and lately the AU has been citing 2020 as the new start date for visa-free African travel.

So far it's "they have cited 2020" which is quite a bit different from an actual statement that says that the goal is 2020 (I've yet to find that one). I've also not been able to find anything around members of the AU having committed to such or any date.

Considering that in the speech mentioned in the article that was submitted they say "as and when they are ready." I would be surprised this would happen this quickly. It would be awesome if it did though.

In 2014, it took 4 months for my wife's Kenyan passport to be renewed. Last year, she applied for a new ID card (to get her new family name on it), and she was able to collect it more than one year later.

At least here in Kenya, I'm not going to hold my breath for the AU passport...

It used to be like this in South Africa, but they've implemented some new tech and you can get a passport in around a week. The new ID cards are even faster.

I suspect this is not appreciated by many in and around the system because there was a whole industry that sprang up around the process (people to stand in lines for you, make the application, etc.) and now it's less likely that a bribe will be offered ;)

Well she didn't have to stand in line for the year ;) No seriously, at some of the bigger and more central places in Nairobi you can now pick a number (and take a guess how long that might take, maybe risk going about some business in the meantime).

But yes, new tech might help with the actual issuing/processing time. In the past, getting a new passport was a matter of a few weeks[1], but they installed various processes to supposedly enhance security. This is not unfounded, as there has been a lot of counterfeiting going on with IDs and passports, e.g. for elections, immigration (mostly from Somalia), or foreign workers. But as long as better/more efficient systems are in place, I doubt their effectiveness.

[1] Even though corruption is rampant in Kenya, it isn't too bad if you're steadfastly refusing to pay bribes.

Yeah I've had some bad experiences in Kenya too if you don't pay a bit "extra" to move things forward.

I assume that you'd need to qualify for a standard passport from your home country before you can get an African Union passport. If you are a refugee with no documentation, this probably won't help you.

It would seem the introduction of it to those that meet certain criteria + biometric detail collection (fingerprints, retina scans) does not seem too far-fetched. I wonder if the border/immigration controls of individual countries have the technology to implement a multi-national system effectively though?