"Carry different risks": Estonia ceases to recognize Russian non -Biometric passports, details
Therefore, at the end of March, the conditions under which Russian citizens who have a temporary residence permit in Estonia will not be able to use their documents if they belong to the old sample and do not contain biometric data. It became known from the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 20. "From March 31, 2025, the Estonian Republic no longer recognizes Non -Biometric passports issued by the Russian Federation," the statement said.
The department notes that Russian non -biometric passports do not meet the requirements established by the International Civil Aviation Organization. The fact is that such documents do not have electronic media, which is why it is impossible to verify the data of the person who owns the passport, with the information contained in the electrochip. In addition, it complicates verification and that there are difficulties through checking the passport.
The reason may be that documentation has been issued in temporarily occupied territories that Russia has appropriated and not recognized in Estonia. "The institution that issues a passport is not so easy to determine that it complicates the identification of unrecognized documents (ie those issued in the occupied territories)," - said in the department.
At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia noted that the Russians will have time by the end of September this year to replace the documents. What will happen if Russian citizens who have a residence permit in the country will not update their passports, it is not reported. It should be noted that last year such a restriction was also introduced in the Czech Republic: there are citizens without documents with biometric data.