Biometric passports will cost €35 at most

The biometric passports that will be issued exclusively from January 1, 2011 will cost not more than €35. The information was confirmed by Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technology Dorin Recean in a news conference held jointly with the Head of the European Union Delegation to Moldova Dirk Schuebel, Info-Prim Neo reports. The biometric passports will be valid for seven years. For the children younger than seven, they will be valid for four years. The passport’s chip will include information about the holder, namely the digital photograph, digital fingerprints, name, surname, date of birth, passport number, issuing date, expiry date, and signature of the holder. The passports without chip issued before January 1 will be used until their period of validity expires. Dirk Schuebel said the introduction of biometric passports will facilitate the dialogue between Moldova and the EU on the liberalization of the visa regime for Moldovan travelers. The EU will provide a grant of €2 million to help Moldova extend the biometric passport making and issuing capacity. Moldova started to issue biometric passports in February 2008. A number of 3,011 such passports have been issued by October 21, 2010.