YEREVAN. – The Armenian biometric passports and identification cards will be issued for a period of ten years.  

Norayr Muradkhanyan, Chief of Passport and Visa Department of Armenia’s Police, stated the abovementioned at a press conference on Thursday. 

Muradkhanyan informed that the memory chips of the identification cards will contain the citizens’ data; the biometric passports likewise will contain these data, except for the citizens’ addresses, but they will include the data on the index finger prints of the citizens.

“The biometric passports identify the persons much more, they pass through border checkpoints much easily, there are forty pages—more than the previous passports—, [and] the embassies issue visas much easier with them.

“The identification card is smaller in size, [it is] more lasting; it contains a signature. By way of it, people can carry out their tax obligations online,” said the head of the Passport and Visa Department.  

Norayr Muradkhanyan added that the biometric passports will not contain “exit visas,” since there is no longer a need for them. And the citizens will no longer have to submit passport photographs, since their photos will be taken on the spot and free of charge.