Passports abroad: what should Ukrainians know?

Due to the hostilities in Ukraine, more than 180,000 Ukrainian citizens are in the UK. The Ukrainian consulates in the UK provide all kinds of support to Ukrainians, including passport issuance.

The procedure for issuing Ukrainian passport documents at consular offices was explained at a webinar organized by the UNBA representative in Scotland, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland together with the Consulate of Ukraine in Edinburgh.

Thus, in Edinburgh alone, in 2023, the Consulate of Ukraine issued more than 3,000 passports, and in the first quarter of this year, more than 500 applications from Ukrainian citizens were accepted.

For the convenience of issuing passport documents, the Consulate of Ukraine in Edinburgh has been operating an electronic queue since last year. Currently, there are no vacancies until mid-June 2024. However, the modernization of the system has enabled Ukrainians to automatically move up the queue.

«The last update, which was made a few months ago, allowed our citizens to sign up for the waiting list. This means that if there are currently no places in the queue, our citizens can apply for passport documents by joining the waiting list. As soon as a suitable slot appears in the stationary queue, a person receives a message with the date and time of the free place. That is, now there is no need to stay awake at night and catch these slots», - said Andriy Kusliy, Consul - Acting Head of the Consulate of Ukraine in Edinburgh.

At the Consulate of Ukraine in Edinburgh, it is also possible to issue passports, including for children who do not yet have a passport of a citizen of Ukraine.

«In accordance with the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 152 of 07.05.2014, you can submit a passport of a citizen of Ukraine or another identity document confirming your citizenship. Such a document can be either the passport itself or an old foreign passport. There is no unnecessary bureaucracy here, we just need to identify the child to issue new documents», - explained Yevhen Mankovskyi, Vice Consul of the Consulate of Ukraine in Edinburgh.

The Consulate of Ukraine in Edinburgh also reported that no new changes have been made to the procedure for mobilization activities, so the military accounting of the issuance of passports to Ukrainian citizens abroad does not apply.

«It is worth noting that according to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1202 of 21.10.2022, passports in the form of a card or booklet, which expired 30 days before or after the start of a full-scale invasion, are valid documents until the end of martial law. However, if you still want to replace them, you need to contact the passport service, SE «Document» in Europe or the State Migration Service of Ukraine, or passport offices», - said Andriy Kusliy.

Finally, Oleksandr Chernykh, UNBA representative in Scotland, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reminded that in May 2023, Ukraine became the first non-EU country to be included in the European Union's trust list. This means that Ukrainian electronic signatures and seals on digital documents will be automatically verified in EU member states and their validity confirmed. Ukrainians can sign European contracts, documents and applications using Diia.Signature-EU. This will open up new opportunities for Ukrainian entrepreneurs and businesses in the EU.