Old Passports Should Be Phased Out of Circulation: Deputy Police Chief

The police are currently taking active steps to implement a new system containing biometric data by the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023. This was announced today by Ara Fidanyan, the Deputy Chief of the Armenian Police, at the National Assembly.

“In this way, we will attempt to provide our community with exclusively biometric data-containing passports, meaning that old passports should gradually be phased out of circulation. And if we issue a passport of the old model with a validity period of 10 years in 2022, we will have to apply and circulate these old model passports until 2032. The purpose of this change is solely conditioned by this circumstance.

There has also been much discussion about the thesis that we might be violating certain international agreements. No, we are not violating anything, as we have alternatives. Biometric passports with a validity period of 10 years continue to be issued today. The discussion is not about those passports, but exclusively about the old model passports,” said Fidanyan.