15:28 28.02.2013

Ukraine's Migration Service could start issue biometric passports to Ukrainians in 2016

2 min read
Ukraine's Migration Service could start issue biometric passports to Ukrainians in 2016

The State Migration Service of Ukraine plans by 2016 to complete all the work required to issue the biometric passports.

As Head of the State Migration Service of Ukraine Mykola Kovalchuk said at a press conference in Kyiv, from January 1 the service started preparations for issuing biometric passports. Moreover, the migration service drew up a draft plan of activities for 2013-2016 needed to issue such passports to Ukrainian citizens.

"The draft decision has already been prepared, and it is being coordinated with other departments," Kovalchuk said.

He predicted that the government would approve the document in March 2013 and financing for this purpose would start in full.

In general, according to the service's head, UAH 700-800 million is necessary to do all the required work to issue the new passports, and if there is stable financing the migration service will be able to issue biometric passports to Ukrainians in 2016.

Kovalchuk also said the new passports would contain an electronic chip with full information about its owner. Later, information about the fingerprints of the owner of documents could be added.

The main task of this chip is to protect against forgery.

As reported, the law of Ukraine on a unified state demographic register and identity documents, which envisages the introduction of electronic passports for Ukrainians, came into force on December 6.

The Verkhovna Rada passed the law on November 20, taking into account proposals made by the president. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed the law on November 29, 2012.

The document foresees the introduction of electronic passports containing electronic chips with biometric information for traveling abroad, according to the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

According to the law, the passports of Ukrainian citizens will be produced in the form of cards with contactless smart chips and issued no later than 30 calendar days from the date of the submission of a relevant application. The electronic passports will include the name of the state, the name of the document, the full name of the holder, the holder's gender, citizenship, date of birth, and a unique number in the register, the number of the document, the date of the document's expiry, the date of issue of the document, the name of the agency that issued the document, the place of birth, a photo and the signature of the holder.

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