Armenia Completes Biometric Passport Design, Targets Fall Issuance

Armenia has finished the design of its new biometric passports and expects to begin issuing them in the fall of this year, the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs says, moving a long-planned overhaul of its travel documents toward rollout. The passports are part of Armenia’s effort to bring its identity documents in line with international standards and to meet the conditions of its European Union visa-liberalization process.

The design milestone is the latest step in a program that has been taking shape for more than a year. “We are currently in a fairly active stage; we have already completed the passport designs,” said Interior Minister Arpine Sargsyan, with a visit to the manufacturing facility in the Netherlands planned as production approaches. The new documents will replace Armenia’s current non-biometric passports.

The passports are being designed to meet International Civil Aviation Organization standards for machine-readable travel documents, incorporating a facial image, fingerprints, and digital security features stored on an embedded chip. That chip-based design is what allows the documents to work with automated, contactless border-crossing systems that Armenia is preparing to introduce alongside the new passports.

The program is being delivered through a public-private arrangement. Armenia selected a consortium of France-based IDEMIA Identity Security and A.C.I. Technology through a competitive tender, and the partners created a dedicated entity, HAYPASS, to manage the system under a multi-year contract, with regulatory authority remaining with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Armenia partnered with IDEMIA to build the EU-standard biometric system after a government decision in 2024 to move to new-style ID cards and biometric passports.

The fall target fits a timeline the government has signaled for some time. Armenia has been preparing the biometric passports and contactless border-crossing systems for an autumn launch, rolling them out first through offices equipped to the new standard before expanding nationwide. The documents are positioned as central to Armenia’s bid for visa-free access to the Schengen Area.

Sources: ARKA

–

By the ID Tech Editorial Team