The new-type dark red biometric passports will start to be issued in July, not in September, as announced earlier. New methods will be used for personalizing the information included in passports. There will be introduced additional security elements, based on the properties of colorants that reflect differently the daylight, depending on the angle.

Stela Nistor, head of the press service of the ICT Ministry, has told IPN that the number of applications for biometric passports rose by 34%. Given that the authorities already finished all the technical procedures, it was decided to start issuing dark red biometric passports earlier than planned. The blue passports, including the biometric ones, will be valid until their period of validity expires.

The new dark red biometric passports will have a chip with an advanced operating system and increased security level that will considerably reduce the possibility of forging the document. The charges for issuing biometric passports will be modified only if there are such objective factors as the modification of prices of the materials used or of the costs for remunerating employees. A biometric passport issued in 30 days now costs 700 lei. A passport obtained in three hours costs 2,280 lei, which is the highest price.