US ambassador briefed on progress of introducing biometric passports

Bishkek, Feb. 4, 2020. / Kabar /. Chairman of the State Registration Service (SRS) Almaz Mambetov and U.S. Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic Donald Lu discussed issues related to visa restrictions for Kyrgyz citizens and the progress in introducing biometric passports in Kyrgyzstan, the press service of the SRS reported.

First of all, Mambetov drew special attention of the U.S. ambassador to the fact that in recent years, the SRS did a lot of work to eradicate all kinds of conditions and factors conducive to the illegal issuance of passports. In particular, Mambetov briefed about the automated information systems (AIS), which exclude the possibility of documenting a citizen without visiting the territorial passport department and, upon receipt of documents, identification is mandatory based on biometric data of fingerprints and comparisons of facial biometrics.

Also, Kyrgyz official informed the ambassador about the measures being taken to resolve the issue of introducing biometric passports in Kyrgyzstan as soon as possible and about the circumstances that did not allow identifying the supplier of biometric passport forms in 2019.

In turn, the ambassador noted that the American side understands the complexity of the situation regarding the competitive bidding for the purchase of biometric passport forms. At the same time, the ambassador explained that the US authorities imposed restrictions only on immigration visas and green cards (Diversity Visa) and noted that the restrictions do not apply to the issuance of non-immigrant visas for other purposes, such as tourism, business, as well as student visas and visas for exchange programs.

The US ambassador assured of his readiness to provide the necessary assistance in resolving issues related to the introduction of biometric passports and noted that the American side is interested in the speedy resolution of this issue, the report said.

The chairman of the SRS assured the U.S. ambassador that taking into account the positive dynamics of the work being done in this direction, biometric passports in the Kyrgyz Republic will be introduced in early 2021.