The Immigration Department is working around the clock to roll out the first 5000 e-passports as early as this week.

The Department and technical experts from Muhlbauer ID Services in Germany are putting the final touches into the much-awaited e-passport system.

The Immigration Department is about to complete testing with the new system and with the assistance of the group from Germany, are training their staff on collecting biometric data, among other technical capabilities.

It had earlier highlighted that there were a total of 9,000 pending passport applications.

Meanwhile, people with old passports can still use them however, applications for new ones will also be facilitated.