The Ministry of Interior Affairs has plans to introduce the issue of foreign passports during one day in Kyiv and during 3-10 days in regions by the end of 2008.
Interior Minister Yurii Lutsenko announced the plans of the ministry at a press conference in Vinnytsia.
"In one-and-a-half months or in two months, citizens with extraordinary circumstances will have an opportunity to come to Kyiv and receive a foreign passport in one day," he said.
Lutsenko said a foreign passport could not be issued quicker than in 3-7 days in regions, as it was impossible to deliver a foreign passport from Kyiv to the region immediately.
"Nobody is going to place the production of foreign passports in regions," he said.
Lutsenko said most of 180 police departments with equipment for making pictures of applicants for foreign passports were working on the introduction of a system for urgent issue of foreign passports. Police departments have established links with the State Tax Administration and the central apparatus of the Ministry of Interior Affairs to check identification codes and data on criminal record.
"By the end of April, such a system will be established at most of department. Early in May, we will summarize the introduction of the system of the issue of foreign passports for 3-5 and 7-10 days. The system must work in full by the end of the year," he said.
Lutsenko noted that foreign passports would be issued in one day only in Kyiv.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Interior Affairs Ministry plans to start an experiment involving single-day issuance of Ukrainian international passports on March 23.
The Interior Affairs Ministry has introduced a five-day schedule for considering applications for international passports at offices of the department of citizenship, immigration, and registration.
In 2007, 977,000 international passports were printed. There are plans to issue 1.2 million foreign passports in 2008.
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