Russia may extend foreign passport validity from five to ten years, a decision is planned by year end, said FMS chief Konstantin Romodanovsky. The agency is also considering online applications to reduce queues, but this depends on funding.

The validity period of a foreign passport may be increased from five to ten years. A decision on this should be made by the end of the year. This statement was made by the head of the Federal Migration Service, Konstantin Romodanovsky.
Also, the FMS is considering plans to create a system for submitting foreign passport application forms via the Internet. This will spare citizens from queues at OVIR offices, at least when submitting documents.
However, the implementation of the new system, according to the head of the FMS, will depend on the agency's financial capabilities
According to the head of the Federal Migration Service, Konstantin Romodanovsky, a ten-year passport validity period will require increasing the number of pages in the document. This will lead to an increase in the fee for citizens. At present, the state fee for issuing a standard foreign passport is 400 rubles. Issuing a biometric passport costs 1,000 rubles. The fact is that such a document contains a microchip which, upon receiving a special encrypted signal, sends information about the owner's identity to a reading device. In addition, the chip contains a digital photograph of the passport holder and data on the date of issue and the expiration date of the document.
According to the FMS, in the first months of 2009 the number of foreign passports issued decreased by 20 percent, while in 2008 there was growth of 16-17 percent. This difference in the figures is primarily due to the fact that the flow of Russian tourists abroad is declining.
Let us recall that Russians planning to travel abroad with minor children have acquired another "headache". Now they will have to not only enter their children into foreign passports, but also paste their photographs there. According to the new Ministry of Internal Affairs instruction "On the procedure for issuing passports for exit from and entry into the Russian Federation," it will now be mandatory to paste photographs of children into foreign passports, including those under six years of age.