Wednesday, April 16, 2008

BOSNIA TO START ISSUING BIOMETRIC PASSPORTS BY APRIL 2009

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (April 16,2008) –The Bosnian Minister of Civil Affairs Sredoje Novic announced that it is realistic to expect that biometric passports would be in use in Bosnia by April next year.

Judging by all the features they are expected to have, these will be the highest-quality passports not only in Europe, but in the world, the Minister underlined, saying how this is an extremely serious and important project for Bosnia.

A decision to introduce biometric passports in Bosnia was adopted by the Bosnian government last year.Existing passports shall be valid until their expiry but for those who wish to travel to countries for which visa is needed, they will have to own biometric passport. This is obligation taken over by the liberalization of visa regime.

A biometric passport is a combined paper and electronic identity document that uses biometrics to authenticate the citizenship of travelers. The passport's critical information is stored on a tiny computer chip, much like information stored on smartcards. Like some smartcards, the passport book design calls for an embedded contactless chip that is able to hold digital signature data to ensure the integrity of the passport and the biometric data.

Initially, the Bosnian Ministry of Civil Affairs planned to start issuing biometric passports by November 1,2008.
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