Romanians who need a new passport will be able to submit the needed papers closer to their homes in Bucharest, at the offices where ID cards are being issued. The old passport service headquarters on N. Iorga Street will move its public relations department to Pipera, 49 Pipera St., where the driving license and car registration service is. Subsidiaries will be open in every district of Bucharest, in some of the centers which issue ID cards.

The passport service itself will continue to be active in the N. Iorga street building, but only the departments which do not involve working with the public.

In order to receive an electronic passport – which is the new standard used nowadays – Romanian citizens must submit the papers themselves at the passport office, and it will take 14 days to get their new passport, if they submitted the documents in Romania. There is also an option to submit documents abroad, and the timeline until receiving the passport in this case is 3 months. Those who live in Romania have to submit their ID card and original birth certificate, the proof of having paid the tax, and the previous passport, if they had one. When applying for the electronic passport, the authorities will scan the applicant's fingerprints and take his picture. The taxes are RON 270 – which covers the cost of the passport and has to be paid at CEC Bank, and the consular tax of RON 32 – payable at CEC Bank or at the treasury. For those who submit requests at the Pipera headquarters, a CEC Bank unit exists in the building.

The Bucharest Prefect – which coordinates the ID card and the passport issuing activity – is yet to announce the list of district subsidiaries where documents for passports can also be submitted.

Romania rolled out electronic passports four years ago and they includes some biometric data about the passport holder, as well as a series of security elements. The passport itself looks similarly to a regular passport, but has a chip integrated in its cover. This microchip allows the scanning of information on it by authorized Governmental equipment and from a small distance. However, some experts ague that the data on the chip can be read by other devices as well, using a phone with NFC capabilities.

The biometric data on the chip includes the digital fingerprints, a picture, and a scan of the holder's eyes, as well as the holder's national identification number CNP. The electronic passport is however not yet mandatory, the other option being to receive a temporary, old fashioned passport, valid for 12 months.

editor@romania-insider.com