Sverdlovsk Region: Demand for Travel Passports Down 60%

According to the Russian Federation President’s order 1222 as of October 19, 2005, Russian citizens willing to go abroad must obtain new-format international passports containing special information microchips. All Sverdlovsk Region dwellers may apply for these new generation passports at the Federal Migration Service’s head office at 2 Krylov St., Yekaterinburg beginning from January 14, 2008. At the same time, all the other outlets as well as the head office will be issuing old-format passports: these will be valid until their expiry date. In addition, new passports will have become

The officers of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Migration Service started accepting the regional dwellers’ applications for the new generation international passports in March 2008. Their office was fitted with four booths meant for taking photographs of applicants and accepting and processing their application forms. Only 206 people applied for these new passports in March 2008, yet the figure has soared to 2,027 people by now, and the number of applicants keeps growing. For the time being, the new passports can only be obtained at the Service’s Yekaterinburg headquarters at 2

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Migration Service is not going to accept any foreign passport applications during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The spokesperson explains this has to do with the possible difficulties the city dwellers might have getting around Yekaterinburg on June 15-17, 2009. Nevertheless, the applications for the new-generation passports will be accepted on June 12-14, 2009; those who’ve placed their applications earlier will also be able to obtain their passports at the office.

The local dwellers have to wait for up to four months rather that the legitimate thirty days to get their foreign passports done, Ordzhonikidzevskiy district’s division of the Federal Migration Service Administration in Sverdlovsk Region said to an UrBC reporter. Apparently, it did not help that Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities grew alarmed as early as July 2008 and claimed the regional division of the Federal Migration Service kept violating the citizens’ right to a foreign passport. The prosecution authorities then insisted on eliminating the offense and prosecuting the

‘The fact that Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Migration Service only provides the local citizens with foreign passports with great delays is a violation of their civil rights. Yekaterinburg’s tourist community has numerously placed claims and requests with the Service’s representatives, asking them to do something about the problem. At the beginning of summer, these officials were invited to the town hall to think over the possible solutions with the tourist market representatives and Deputy Mayor Viktor Konteev. One of the ways out proposed in the course of this meeting was to