Algeria: “Biometric passports to be issued within a week with priority to immigrants”

The issuing starting as early as next June from the south-eastern province of Laghouat, of the first biometric national identity cards and the generalization of this new type of official identification documents including passports, by mid-November, were among the topics dealt with during a morning interview broadcast on Sunday by Channel III of the National Radio.

The National Radio guest was Mr. Abderrazak Henni, General Manager of modernization and archives at the Ministry of the Interior and local assemblies who affirmed during the program that the digitization of these documents will be followed bythe gray cards and driving licenses, whose delivery willbe, henceforth, carried out by the ministerial Department of transport services.

Concerning the delivery of biometric passports, Mr Henni indicated that the latter would be issued within a 7-10 day period at the latest in the very near future with the scrapping of all the unnecessary red-tape by the services concerned.

Mr. Abderrazak Henni also underscored that the generalization of this official travel document was expected to be wrapped up on 24 November 2015.

Moreover, he assured that as from next week, children aged less than 12 years, will no longer be compelled to be present at the local administrative districts to submit their passport files, stressing that this procedure would be devolved, from now onwards, upon their parents.

He also noted that an identification number will be, henceforth, assigned to every Algerian citizen in order to allow them to secure any administrative document in the shortest possible time.