The government of Armenia approved, at Thursday’s Cabinet, meeting the procedure for issuing and refusing passports and ID cards to Armenian citizens, the conditions and tariffs for obtaining them in a short time for a surcharge, as well as the procedure for involving a private partner in this process.

According to the new regulations, an Armenian citizen submits an application for a passport or ID card through a unified electronic platform before visiting the office. It will be possible to submit biometric data and receive ready-made documents in Yerevan also on Saturdays and Sundays. On Sundays, at least one service center of a private partner will be open in the Armenian capital.

A private operator has been involved in the process of issuing and refusing biometric passports. If the applicant wants to receive the document in a short time for a surcharge, he must make a corresponding note on the unified electronic platform.

If during the initial online application verification, data inconsistencies are detected and the citizen does not make respective corrections within 30 days of receiving the notification, the application will be canceled, and the applicant will be notified of this via the electronic platform. In this case, the paid state duty is subject to refund. Meanwhile, in the event of refusal to issue a biometric passport or identification card, the state duty is not refunded.

After the final approval of the online application, the private operator collects the citizen’s biometric data. For an additional fee or in other cases specified by the government’s decision, the biometric data of a person in Armenia may also be collected at his/her place of residence (location).

The biometric passport or identification card will be ready on the 14th working day after submitting the biometric data, and will be issued at the private partner’s service center where the citizen submitted the data. If the citizen does not come to receive it within 12 months of receiving the notification that the document is ready, the document will lose its validity.

In case of external damage to the document, the employee of the private office forms an application for its reprint. After that, the citizen is notified by e-mail or by a short message (SMS) sent to the phone number about the readiness of the document—on the next working day, if the application was submitted in Yerevan, and on the second working day, if the application was submitted in the provinces of Armenia.

In case of obtaining an Armenian biometric passport or identification card in a foreign country, the citizen is notified of the issuance or refusal of the document via e-mail or SMS no earlier than the 14th and no later than the 45th working day after submitting biometric data.

The new biometric system will be launched in Armenia on November 1.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan explained that from that day on, Armenia’s passport departments will be closed, and the places for receiving documents will change: they will be provided in 14 provincial and two Yerevan—in Yerevan Mall and Megamall—offices of the private company.

The cost of the new biometric identification card will be 5,950 drams, and the cost of the biometric passport will be 28,650 drams.