New rules for issuing visas for Russians to France

On April 23, the French visa center in Moscow stopped accepting old-style passports from Russians. However, there was no information about this on its website or on the page of the French consulate. Travel agencies were also not officially notified. Later, screenshots of letters from the center's employees appeared in visa chats. They said that the submission of documents with old passports was temporarily suspended - until further instructions from the consulate general.

Reference: Citizens of the Russian Federation can apply for two types of passports: a biometric one - a new-style document, or a regular old-style passport. Both passports have the same legal force, they have no restrictions on entry or exit, but there are a number of differences. The new-style passport is valid for 10 years, the old one - 5 years. Old passports do not have biometric data, but the new ones do - this is a chip with an image of the passport owner's face and his fingerprints.

Experts explain this to increased security both at the borders and within the country.

According to ATOR, applications submitted to the visa center with five-year passports before April 23 will be considered. The rest, with the exception of children under 15, will now have to obtain a biometric passport.

According to all Schengen countries will come to a general solution - all passports must be biometric.