The Theme: Passport. Former Head of the Passport and Visa Office's Insights

Former Head of the Passport and Visa Office, Mnatsakan Bichakhchyan, wrote on Facebook:

“THEME: PASSPORT
First, a passport is also a commodity and has a price. The more biometric passports the state orders, the lower the price the competition participant will offer. Several factors influence pricing, but primarily two: the quantity ordered and the service delivery timeline. Naturally, the circulation of the old sample passport hinders the further ordering of biometrics.

What steps should be taken?
- Speak more openly and publicly with the public, listen to proposals, and accept reasonable suggestions.
- Offer a new competition for a maximally long term for biometric contracts (for example, 15 years), which will help reduce the price of passports as much as possible.
- Declare a strategic approach that the state will do everything to ensure that the next biometric passport will be less than 25,000 drams. This will also be a guideline for competition participants.
- To ensure that the number of biometrics is high, which will consequently lower the price, modify the law to allow individuals to obtain more than one biometric passport. There are practical cases where the presence of a specific country's visa hinders a person from entering another country. Or the passport is with the embassy while they wish to travel to another country at that moment.
- After taking all possible measures, then consider discussing the reduction of the validity period of the old sample passport. And while discussing, take into account that the old sample passport and the biometric one have the same rates, both are 65,000 drams. Naturally, a citizen paying 65,000 drams will not want to receive a two-year-old old sample passport when they can get a biometric one for the same price. Furthermore, we are confident that we can provide them with a biometric passport.”