DUSHANBE, November 8, 2010, Asia-Plus — The Tajik Embassy in Moscow has begun to issue biometric passports to Tajik nationals living in the Russian Federation, according the Embassy press service.
The consular fee for the biometric passport issuance is 100.00 U.S. dollars.
We will recall that biometric passports were introduced in Tajikistan on February 1, 2010. To print the first bulk of biometric passports the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) took a 24 million somoni (equivalent to US$6 million) credit from the Government. The credit is given to the ministry for three years. Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi told reporters at a news conference in Dushanbe on February 1 that the ministry has set fees for biometric passports taking into account the loan. The fee for diplomatic biometric passports is US$125.00, the fee for the service biometric passport is US$100.00 and the fee for ordinary Tajik biometric passport is US$75.00, the minister said.
As of February 1, 2010, 100,000 blank biometric passports, including 20,000 blank diplomatic biometric passports, 20,000 blank service biometric passports and 60,000 blank ordinary biometric passports, were printed. The ordinary Tajik biometric passport is issued for 10 years, while the diplomatic and service biometric passports are issued for 5 years.
Current diplomatic, service and ordinary Tajik passports will still remain valid along with the biometric passports that were introduced on February 1. The MFA officials say it is connected with the fact that it is still impossible to provide all Tajik nationals with the biometric passports. The biometric passports will be introduced gradually.
