Estonia, Legislation, Society, Transport

The explanatory note of the bill, that this week got the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, states that issuing the passports causes too expensive resource cost in state authorities and is very expensive for the state.

The draft law's authors further state that when travelling to the Schengen countries, the passport must be in force at least for three months after the expiry of the visa; when travelling to the United States, UK and Russia, the period is 6 months. In addition, they say, from the receipt of the application until receipt of a passport it takes up to 30 days. Thus, the real validity period of the passport is four years and five months to four years and eight months.

For all the previously issued passports, the validity remains as indicated in the passport. The validity of an alien's passport may not, however, exceed the period of validity of the residence permit issued to the foreigner.

According to the draft, the new period of validity of passports could take effect from 1 January 2016.