Venezuela briefly permits BTC payments for passport applicants

• The Venezuelan govt briefly permitted passport applicants to pay through Bitcoins this week. 
• The option was removed just hours after the introduction, as per user reports. 
• Some users have said that the option was never available to Venezuelan users, only to foreign applicants.

The government of Venezuela briefly permitted passport applicants to pay through Bitcoins this week. The option was seen on SAIME, Venezuela’s Administrative Service for Identification, Migration and Foreigners. 

According to some user reports, the confirmation of BTC payments took around eight minutes. The payments were processed through BTCPay Server. It appears that the BTC payment option was offered because of a suspension on credit card payments. Nevertheless, the option was removed just hours after the introduction, as per user reports. 

Venezuelan journalist Marbellis Linares has denied that the payment option was ever truly available, stating that “it is not functional, the information is false.” The statement contradicts the screenshots of in-progress payments that are circulating online. 

Some users have said that the option was never available to Venezuelan users, only to foreign users applying for passports externally.