Ukrainian IDs go digital, biometric passports available in Diia mobile application

The Ukrainian government has approved a resolution for digital passports with biometrics to be issued to all Ukrainians in the near future for use as eIDs, according to the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

The resolution is titled “On the implementation of an experimental project on the use of the passport of a citizen of Ukraine in electronic form and the passport of a citizen of Ukraine for traveling in electronic form.”

More than 17,000 citizens are already testing e-passports, which can be used as both an electronic ID card and a biometric passport. The government says these documents can be used to confirm identity when stopped by police during quarantine, for banking transactions, to travel, to confirm age when buying alcohol or cigarettes, to get medical and government services, and others.

The electronic versions will soon be available in the Diia (Action) mobile application. These are valid only in Ukraine, however citizens who do not have a driver’s license or ID card can confirm their identity with an international passport loaded into the Diia app.

Information in the mobile app is updated hourly, and a QR code is created every three minutes for users to check their passport from any phone that has the Diia app.

Ukraine has issued biometric travel passports to more than 950,000 Ukrainian citizens in the Russia-occupied Donbas region. Earlier this year it started issuing biometric ID cards, while in late 2019 it had issued more than 14 million biometric passports.

Article Topics

biometric passport  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  eID  |  electronic identity cards  |  identity document  |  identity verification  |  mobile app  |  Ukraine