TIRANA, Aug 4 – Thousands of immigrants who have come back home for vacations are staying in long queues these days to apply for the new identity card and the biometric passports.
Long lines of people at the application offices have been noticed around the country recently.
Albania has started to issue new identity cards and biometric passports this year.
The new IDs were also used for the June 28 parliamentary election.
The passports are also necessary to help the country earn the right of a visa free regime from the European Union member countries, hopefully next year.
If approved only biometric passport holders will enjoy that right.
The government has also said that the existing passports are valid until Jan. 1, 2011.
Authorities said that some 70,000 Albanians had already applied or had taken the new biometric passport, which was a pre-condition set at the country’s road map to apply before expecting the visa free regime.
Authorities expect up to 200,000 people will have the new passport by the end of the year.
Immigrants rush to get biometric passports
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