New Zealand has announced that long-awaited 10-year ePassports will now be introduced in November rather than a month later.Senior officials said hard work by the Department of Internal Affairs had enabled it to launch the travel document sooner than expected."Subject to legislation passing in Parliament, adults planning for their Christmas holidays will be able to apply for a 10 year passport at the end of November," said Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne said today.Dunne had said in May that the documents would be introduced in 2016.The New Zealand passports' validity has been a long-running source of controversy. The five-year passport was introduced abruptly following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, but led to a petition campaign against the inconvenience it created.Last August, the Labour party noted that "the introduction of biometric facial recognition technology means there is now a much lower risk of passport fraud".Because a child's appearance can change significantly over time, the child's passport will remain valid for five years, Dunne added.
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