Since 2018 the State Migration Service of Ukraine is issuing for foreigners and stateless persons temporary and permanent residence permits in a form of a plastic card with implanted contactless electronic chip. More than 122 thousands of such documents were issued as of August, 2019.
Biometric permits as well as non-biometric ones certify the identity of a person and confirm the legality of the temporary or permanent residence in Ukraine. However, nowadays paper permits are not protected from frauds, wear out quickly and become unusable.
In this regard new permits are made in a form of plastic card, and therefore are more convenient and durable than their paper counterparts. In addition, they comply with modern international standards regarding document security and, thanks to implemented electronic contactless chip, are more secured from tampering, copying and theft of personal data.
In order to exchange the old specimen permit for biometric one, a foreigner or stateless person shall collect necessary documents and not later than 15 working days before the expiration of the permit’s validity apply to the territorial department/unit of the State Migration Service or to the citizens service center “Passport Service”.
The procedure of submission of the documents for issuance of the permit involves scanning of fingerprints, taking pictures and preservation of a digitally signed person's signature. The permit is issued within 15 working days after the date of documents’ submission.
To check the status of already issued and produced biometric temporary and permanent residence permits, foreigners and stateless persons may use:
- official website of the State Migration Service of Ukraine at https://dmsu.gov.ua/services/docstate.html (ukrainian version), https://dmsu.gov.ua/en-home/en-docstate.html (english version);
- with a help of the SMS chat-bot in Viber and Telegram, which sends a notification of each new stage of the document up to the moment it arrives at the issuing unit.
These categories of persons also have the opportunity to check the validity of their documents in the databases of the Migration Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs online. Such verification is possible with the help of the SMS service “Verification of Invalid Documents” (ukrainian version, english version).