Russia to temporarily stop issuing biometric passports abroad
All-Russian diplomatic missions abroad have suspended the acceptance of documents for a biometric passport for a period of 10 years since August 26. This is due to “economic completeness”.
AT on the website of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia states that refusal to accept documents for biometric passports will be reported separately. Later in the telegram channel of the consular department the office found a report that this was due to an obligation to reformat the electronic media stored in the passport.
You can still apply for an old-style passport. It is valid for five years and does not contain biometric chips.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not specify whether restrictions are indicated on the issuance of international passports on the territory of Russia. The documents are issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After reports of the suspension of the acceptance of applications for a new type of international passport at consular offices, access to the department for issuing passports was terminated on the website of public services, writes RBC.
Previously Russian authorities have suspended project for issuing digital internal Russian passports. One of the reasons was the shortage of chips, which arose due to the detection introduced after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The executive director of Sberbank Olga Maklakshina also spoke about the lack of chips for plastic cards. Employees had to “pick out” chips from old cards and insert them into new ones.
The main functional difference between a 10-year passport and a five-year one is that it can be a second passport. As reported on the portal “Gosuslugi”, when choosing a second international passport of the old sample, the current passport is taken away and canceled, even if it is biometric.