Press releases

MINSK, 16 December (BelTA) – Belarus is planning to start producing biometric passports and national ID cards by the end of 2018, Alexei Begun, the head of the Citizenship and Migration Department at the Interior Ministry of Belarus, told the media on 16 December, BelTA has learned.

“We expect to start issuing biometric passports for travel abroad and ID-cards by the end of 2018,” Alexei Begun said. He recalled that in accordance with the plan for the development of biometric technologies for 2014-2018, Belarus carried out a set of measures to infuse national documents with biometric technologies. “These are passports for travel abroad and the national ID cards. Plans have been made to introduce them into Belarus’ integrated service-payment system,” he said.

ID cards are plastic cards with biometric information stored on the chip. They are successfully used in many countries around. Such cards are compact and wearproof. Their main advantage is that they are almost impossible to counterfeit. Biometric passports make travel across state borders faster and more convenient.