Electronic identification cards will fully replace the regular 16-page passports. Based on a Presidential decree of 20 September, 2013, authorities are supposed to issue new identification cards for citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan as of 1 March. Ministry of Justice confirmed this to Asia-Plus. However, the Decree is not available on the President’s website.
An identification card is an official document, which identifies a person, including in various electronic systems, which is usually made in a format of a plastic card.
An identification card usually contains information about the holder of the card in text, machine-reading and electronic formats, including his/her photograph, name, personal number, specimen signature, and biometric information, written into an electronic chip or on a magnetic strip.
The Decree reads the following: “With the aim of ensuring constitutional rights of citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan and public order, and based on Article 69 of the Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan, I hereby decree to issue identification cards for citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan as of 1 March, 2014.”
With that, the internal passport of the citizen of the Republic of Tajikistan is valid within the territory of Tajikistan until its expiration, which means that both the electronic and the paper document will be valid.
The President assigned to the Government to inform foreign states about the new identification cards of the citizen, and ensure their recognition as an international identification document in order to ensure Tajik citizens’ travels abroad.
It is not clear yet whether the identification card will replace passports, or the above statement is only relevant for countries where Tajik citizens can use internal passports to travel.
