Russians abroad will no longer be issued 10-year passports with chips: what happened

From August 26, Russian citizens abroad can only apply for a passport with a validity of 5 years, since the issuance of 10-year passports has so far been stopped. Writes about it with the BBC.

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From August 26, the consular departments of Russian embassies abroad temporarily suspend the acceptance of applications for the issuance of passports valid for 10 years, according to the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

In addition, already existing records are also canceled, applicants are offered to re-apply to the department and apply for a passport with a validity period of 5 years.

What is the reason

On the websites of the embassies in Latvia and Turkey, the new rules are explained by “technical reasons”, and the latter emphasizes that they will remain in effect until the “issue of manufacturing passports with an electronic storage medium” is resolved. Therefore, it can be assumed that such an innovation is associated with a shortage of chips.

On the subject: Many EU countries cancel Schengen visas for Russians right at the border

The lack of such components against the backdrop of sanctions was one of the main reasons why the Russian Ministry of Digital Development had to freeze the project of electronic passports. The executive director of the Russian Sberbank, Olga Maklakshina, also spoke about the lack of chips for plastic cards. Information appeared that employees were forced to pick out chips from old cards and insert them into new ones.

Who will it affect

First of all, those who need a second passport. The main functional difference between a 10-year passport and a five-year one is that it can be a second passport. A five year old is not.

A second passport is needed in case the first one runs out of pages and there is nowhere to put new visas and stamps. It is also useful to have it when applying for a visa: it is possible that one of the passports will “get stuck” in a foreign consulate.

In addition, different passports are used to travel to conflicting countries.

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The websites of Russian embassies say that you can apply for a five-year passport if the previous one has expired, is lost, damaged, and also if there are no more free pages in it.

But in this case, the applicant will have to hand over the current passport and wait for a new passport to be received without documents in hand. And this is not the best option, because the waiting period can reach several months.

“From a legal point of view, the only difference is the number of pages and the fact that one passport is biometric and the other is not,” says Konstantin Dobrynin, senior partner at Pen & Paper.

At the same time, he believes, “the state, apparently, wants to put under its control the freedom of movement of some citizens of Russia. It is possible that passports will be issued, but for a shorter period and, perhaps, not for everyone.”

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