Russia suspended the issuance of biometric passports

From February 2, the State Service Service has suspended applications for the release of biometric passports, which are issued for 10 years. “Goznak” explained this “in high demand” for electronic media.

The manufacturer of the microcircuit Mikron AO reconfigrates the equipment and “optimizes technological processes to comply with the increased demand for the microcircuits under discussion,” the Goznak statement said.

In 2022, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs issued more than 5.4 million passports, which is 1.5 million more than last year.

At the end of August, the Russian Embassy suspended the issuance of 10-year passports due to "technical problems" with electronic chips. The issuance of documents resumed in a month.

• In the summer of 2022, the issuance of passports of a new sample was suspended in Russian embassies of several countries. Then the authorities also explained this to "technical reasons." The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the issuance was stopped "in connection with the need for reformatting an electronic medium." Izvestia then, with reference to sources in the IT sector, reported that the suspension may be explained by the deficit of the chips necessary for the release of these documents.
• In 2022, in Russia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued more than 5.4 million foreign passports, this is 1.5 million more than in 2021 (3.9 million).
• The registration of foreign passports grew after Russia began a military invasion of Ukraine, as well as after the announcement of mobilization in September 2022. In August and September 2022, 483 thousand and almost 423 thousand documents were issued, respectively. The statistics of passports from January to October 2022 have been the highest over the past three years.