The draft federal law On Introducing Amendments to the Federal Law On Exiting and Entering the Russian Federation has been developed by the Federal Migration Service following the President’s Executive Order No. 1709 of December 29, 2012, On the Passport of a Citizen of the Russian Federation as an Identity Document Beyond the Borders of the Russian Federation with an Electronic Chip Carrying Additional Biometric Information, as well as the Instruction of the Government of January 18, 2013.
The draft law adds some provisions to the aforementioned federal law. These provisions introduce additional biometric information (print of the index finger) in electronic passports; tasks federal executive bodies, their regional branches and Russian diplomatic missions and consular offices with collecting the additional biometric information of passport holders and processing it for use in electronic passports.
The collection of additional biometric information of passport holders will be conducted by scanning of the fingerprints of Russian citizens over the age of 12.
The fingerprint data will be stored in the passport’s microchip, making the document more secure.
The draft law authorises federal executive bodies, their regional branches and Russian diplomatic missions and consular offices that accept applications for passports, to keep records of issued Russian foreign passports and send this information to the Federal Migration Service, which will keep their records in the Unified Federal Register of Issued Passports.
Passports will be checked against the register in order to prevent individuals from using other people’s passports.
To organise the issuance of new passports it will be necessary to update the existing information technology infrastructure, purchase the necessary equipment, install it, and put it into operation. Given the amount of work involved, the draft law will come into force on January 1, 2015. With respect to diplomatic missions and consular offices, this law will come into force as soon as they obtain the relevant hardware and software with a deadline of January 1, 2016.
The federal law will be implemented by the Federal Migration Service and the Ministry of Defence, which will use federal budget funds allocated for their ongoing operations and will not require additional federal funds.
Additional federal funds will be allocated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to implement measures under the draft law to update the state system of next-generation passport and visa issuance, processing and control. The total additional expenses will amount to 340.74 million roubles (136.87 million roubles in 2014, and 203.87 million roubles in 2015)
The draft law will be discussed at a Government meeting.