Government approves plan for biometric passports introduction

The Cabinet of Ministers approved a plan for the introduction of biometric passports, which is deemed as one of the key points of the plan for the EU visa regime liberalization.

A single data base, demographic register, will be set up in the country to implement this plan. The Government of Ukraine allocated 793.3 million UAH up to 2016 for the plan implementation.

Biometric passport, according to the law and international standards, will contain two types of data: basic and additional. The basic data consist of detailed information about the person - digitized photo of the face, digitized signature, name, date of birth. Additional information is fingerprints.

Civil passports will be issued upon birth. Turnaround time remains the same – up to 30 days. The internal passport, which used to be of indefinite duration, in the future will be issued for 10 years. Replacement of the "old" passport with a new biometric is voluntary. According to preliminary estimates, the cost of a new passport will be 350 UAH.

It should be noted that according to the program on simplification of visa regime with the EU, visa-free travel for Ukrainians will be possible only having the biometric document.

The introduction of the new passports to citizens of Ukraine will provide an easy border crossing when traveling to foreign countries, strengthen the national security system (in terms of illegal immigration) and contribute to the development of information society in the state.