Financiarul

The new system releasing biometric passports to Bucharesters was launched on Monday, in the presence of the Prefect of Bucharest Mihai Atanasoaiei, of the Secretary of State with the Ministry of Administration and Interior (MAI) Mihai Capra, police quaestor Aurel-Vasile Sime, head of the General Department for Passports, and other officials.

‘The measure was triggered by the European Union having made it mandatory for Romania to get its traveling paper standards in line with European norms, since all the other EU states, except for Bulgaria and Cyprus, have already implemented the system. The new type of e-passport will be very safe. In order for its issuance, there was implemented a high performance software, and the number of releasing offices was doubled’, the Prefect said.

The first Bucharester will enjoy its biometric passport on January 18. The shortest deadline for the release of a passport will be 14 days, with the longest 30 days since the request. The biometric passport will be valid 5 years, while the temporary passports are only valid one year.
Romania was the first country in the European Union (EU) that introduced the e-pas sports, containing both biometric elements: two fingerprints, one from each hand, in addition to a digital photograph. The new passports contain 50 safety elements, compared with 32 safety elements for the current passports.

The newly Romanian e-passport, introduced as of December 31, 2008, presents a series of novelties, among which an electronic data storage computer chip, to contain all the critical data existing on the e-file – given name, family name, birth date, personal identification number, validity term, issuing entity, citizenship etc. Moreover, the chip contains digital imaging and fingerprint scan biometrics, expect for the case of children under 6, who cannot, according to the EU regulations, be taken fingerprints and also except for such cases when taking fingerprints is physically impossible, either temporarily or for good, because of accidents.

The first biometric passport was issued on January 30, 2009, in the Ilfov County (southern Romania). The Brasov (central), Timisoara (western), Tulcea (eastern), Hunedoara (western), Vrancea (eastern) and Bacau (eastern) are only counties where no such system to release biometric passports was introduced yet. Nevertheless, according to the authorities, the system will be available in Brasov and Timisoara on January 11, in Tulcea on January 13, Hunedoara – January 14 and in Vrancea and Bacau on January 18.