In the Spring of 2012, all old non-biometric passports will get out of circulation. This was confirmed by the Deputy Interior Minister, Ferdinand Poni. Speaking about the process of distrubuting the new international document to the population, Poni declared that 2.2 million Albanians have received the bimetric passports so far, but he didn’t mention if there will be any refund for those who received the passports until March 2009, when the biometric passports’ distribution started. Non official sources from the Interior Ministry say that there will be no refund.
Most of the Albanians received what were then called “the new passports” from 2000 and after. Some hundreds thousands still have the old non-biometric passports that used to be valuable from 5 to 8 years, and who have paid 5.000 ALL for the documentation.
The citizens who have received a non-biometric passport in 2009, for a 10 year expiration period, without being told that the new biometric passports would be distributed only a few weeks later, think that this movement is very unjust.
Some of them believe that the best way would be that of having their old passport expire in the normal date, rather than having it devaluated unilaterally by the government.
The passport is the only document for traveling outside the territory of Albania. It verifies the Albanian citizenship to the holder. Until January 2009, the only identification document that was released by the Service Office of the Registrar, was a certification with a photograph.
The application process for biometric passports started on March 2009. The new biometric passport is based on the laser carving technology.
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