FMS is preparing to issue passports with fingerprints

The Federal Migration Service (FMS) is preparing to begin an experiment in the summer to issue a ten-year biometric passport with fingerprints, and in the coming years will not abandon the five-year passports of the old sample.

“There is no intention to cancel the old passport so far. We are thinking about how to potentially modify their issuance in the future, the head of the FMS Konstantin Romodanovsky said on Friday. According to him, in the future, foreign passports without biometric indicators can become documents for one trip or “documents for a short period of time”.

“But in the coming years, old passports will be issued as before,” Romodanovsky said. Currently, the Russian Federation issues foreign passports of two types: "old" five-year and ten-year biometric. A biometric passport is thicker and more expensive - the size of the state duty charged for its registration is higher than for a five-year passport. In the ten-year passport so far, only one biometric indicator is a three-dimensional photo. “From July 1, a pilot project for issuing passports with fingerprints should start working in Moscow, the Moscow region of St. Petersburg,” he said.

“As for the replication of the system, we will see how the pilot project goes,” he said. Earlier, Romodanovsky promised that the mass issuance of passports with fingerprints will begin in 2014.

Source: Interfax