Citizens Leaving Armenia Must Have Exit Stamp in Passport by December 31

Citizens who plan to leave Armenia through any state border by December 31, 2023, must have a circular stamp regarding the validity of Armenian passports in foreign countries stamped in their passports. This was stated in an interview with Sputnik Armenia by Nelli Davtyan, the spokesperson for the Migration and Citizenship Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

As previously reported, from January 1, 2024, exit stamps will no longer be required, and this service will not be provided to citizens. “Citizens leaving the country should approach the passport service, and if the stamp indicating validity in foreign countries (the exit stamp) is absent in their passport, they must resolve this issue to leave the country without problems,” Davtyan mentioned in her interview with the media.

She emphasized that the circular stamp can also be obtained at the Zvartnots airport or at land borders. It should be noted that this service is offered at a higher cost at the border (the passport section charges 1,000 dram for a stamp valid for one year, while at the border the cost is 11,000 dram).

It has been reported that this service is provided on an expedited basis in the regions, and despite the fact that an electronic queue management system is in place in Yerevan, in recent days they have been accommodating citizens holding flight tickets to resolve the exit stamp issue smoothly.

Davtyan advises citizens planning to leave Armenia after January 1, 2024, to carry a link to the relevant publication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that if any misunderstandings arise abroad, and if the border guards are not aware that Armenia no longer applies this legal norm, they can show an official source in different languages to avoid complications. “Of course, we do not believe that such a situation will arise, but we are warning for safety,” she said.

It should be noted that the purpose of the circular stamp on page four of Armenian passports has been to regulate issues related to entry and exit. However, Armenia has implemented an identification card system, in addition to the operational border electronic information system, and there are other tools that make a number of risks manageable. Moreover, there is no requirement to possess a circular stamp according to the standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there were approximately 500,000 transactions related to the circular stamp in 2021, and 640,000 in 2022.