- Kuwait set a KD100 charge for a replacement passport for a lost Kuwaiti passport under Ministerial Decision No. 1769 of 2026.
- The charge takes effect when published in Kuwait Al-Youm, not automatically on the decision’s October 5, 2026 issue date.
- Descriptions differ on whether the fee covers lost-passport replacement or broader services; it is not confirmed for every application.
Kuwait has set a KD100 charge for a replacement passport for a lost Kuwaiti passport under Ministerial Decision No. 1769 of 2026. Sheikh Fahad Yousef Saud Al Sabah, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, issued the decision on October 5, 2026.
The charge takes effect on the date the decision appears in the Official Gazette, Kuwait Al-Youm. The decision’s issue date and its effective date are therefore not necessarily the same.
Descriptions of the covered transactions differ. One account says the amendment covers passport issuance or renewal; another describes the amount as the replacement cost for a lost passport.
That distinction limits how broadly the change can be applied. The measure should not be treated as a confirmed blanket price for every ordinary passport application.
The amendment changes a fee schedule, not passport eligibility
The decision revises a provision in Ministerial Decision No. 20 of 1971, the framework for fees collected by the General Department of Nationality and Travel Documents. The amended text is identified as Article 3 of the second article of the earlier decision.
The change concerns the amount payable for a passport transaction. It does not establish new citizenship requirements, change passport validity periods or alter who qualifies for a passport.
The ministry’s undersecretary is responsible for implementing the amendment. The stated trigger for the new charge is publication in the gazette, rather than a separate implementation date.
The older decision dates to 1971, but the information about the amendment does not set out the previous fee. It also provides no before-and-after schedule for comparing charges across passport services.
The difference in descriptions leaves an important boundary. Lost-passport replacement is identified in one account, while another uses broader language covering issuance and renewal. Those categories should not be assumed to have identical treatment without the operative wording.
Damaged passports are not separately identified in the descriptions. Nor do they establish whether the new amount applies in the same way to standard first-time issuance, renewal or lost-document replacement.
Electronic renewal remains a separate passport service
Kuwaiti citizens aged 21 and above can renew passports electronically through the government’s Sahel application, according to a separate account of the service. Applicants can choose a five-year or ten-year passport, upload a photograph and pay electronically.
That online process provides a separate route for renewals. The fee decision, however, is described in terms that do not consistently distinguish replacement from routine renewal.
The available service details do not connect the two options by price. They provide no fee comparison between five-year and ten-year passports, so the validity choices alone do not establish what amount an applicant will pay under the amended schedule.
The broader administrative context includes changes to who can sign travel documents. In September 2026, Sheikh Fahad issued three ministerial decrees authorizing additional officials in the General Department of Nationality and Travel Documents to sign Kuwaiti passports and nationality certificates.
Those signing authorizations are separate from the fee amendment. The charge takes effect upon publication in Kuwait Al-Youm.
