Biometric passport number 2.000.000

Belgrade, June, 04. 2010 (Serbia Today) - Serbia has recently issued new biometric passport with serial number 2. 000.000. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic explained that the Ministry of Internal Affairs receives 6500 to 7200 requests for new passports daily, and has undertaken several steps to raise capacity to meet 8500 passports requests a day . According to him, the greatest demand for a new passport is in Belgrade so the Ministry has requested the mayor’s assistance in acquiring extra space and personnel. Dacic said that the Ministry faced two problems - lack of space and people, and apologized again to the citizens because of the crowd. He announced that they will test a new system for scheduling the passport request by SMS messages soon. He also announced the possibility of extending the validity of old passports for Serbs living abroad in order to reduce demands on the diplomatic and consular missions. Dacic thanked the police and workers involved in the issue of new documents, adding that so far Serbia has received 1.8 million  request for new  ID cards. Since July 7 2008, when the new passports were issued, there have been more than 2.1 million requests.