From January 1 in Ukraine officially won’t issue paper passports in the form of books – they were replaced by the ID-card. Documents for registration of identity cards of the new sample can be already submitted from January 11.
The ID-cards will be given to those who apply for a passport for the first time. The innovation lies in the fact that they will issue plastic cards from 14 years but not from 16 as before, for a period of four years. Upon reaching the age of 18 it must be changed on another card confirming majority age.
Also plastic passports will be issued to those who messed up or lost the old passport or who want to change photo. The replacement of the old passport for a new ID-card is not necessarily.
“The important point is that if the card is lost the citizen could use the right to reinstatement it in any district and any city of Ukraine,” commented the chief specialist of Public Relations and Mass Media of the regional department of the Migration Service Gaga Kiknadze.
The biometric data of the owner will be sewn into the new documents. All data will be written in Ukrainian and English languages.
The cost of the ID-card is still under discussion. It’s planned that it won’t exceed 200 hryvnias.
“There won’t be any problems with the reading of the information from the card. And we, as citizens will also have an opportunity to know who and why looked through our information. About this population will be informed later,” assured Gaga Kiknadze.
It’s expected that the entire process of transition of Ukrainians on new passports will take about five years.
“The advantage of the ID-cards is that they are much safer than the old passport-books because it couldn’t be used by a third party. Many countries, first of all, the member states of the European Union have already used these cards. For Ukraine, the priority is to join the EU so it’s obligatory procedure which will approximate us to this step” added Gaga Kiknadze.
