Samoa’s Consul General Auseugaefa Poloma Komiti has discussed with Attorney General Talauega Eleasalo Ale, a possible alternative to American Samoa’s Certificate of Identity.
The Samoa Consul General who used to head Samoa’s Immigration Office while he was Chief Executive Officer of the Prime Minister’s Office is familiar with some of the problems that American Samoans traveling with CIs have encountered.
He explains that under international travel regulations a traveler must have a passport that is valid for longer than six months.
But he says the American Samoa CI’s fall short of that requirement because it is only good for six months.
He says if a person gets issued a CI today and travels tomorrow, the document is already invalid because it is short of six months.
The Consul General says while he was in charge of Samoa’s immigration office, he devised a travel document that’s similar to a passport but has only a few pages and does not cost as much as a passport.
The Samoa travel document is only good for one year.
He said this was the travel document which village groups coming here for Flag Day used.
Auseugaefa said most people in these groups would only be traveling a few times in their lifetime, so the short term travel document was appropriate for them.
The consul general said it was discussed at previous inter Samoa talks that American Samoa would come up with the proper travel documents to meet international rules and avoid hassles for US nationals in foreign countries.
To that end Auseugaefa said he and Attorney General Talauega have discussed the one year travel document and has provided a sample of the document to the AG.
Attorney General Talauega has told KHJ News In previous interviews that his office is working on a replacement travel document to take the place of the CI.
