Albanian passport

Albanian passport
The front cover of a contemporary Albanian biometric passport.
Date first issued	March 24, 2009
Issued by	Albania
Type of document	Passport
Purpose	Identification and travel abroad
Eligibility requirements	Albanian citizenship
Expiration	10 years

The Albanian passport is a travel and identity document that is issued to citizens who are nationals of Albania and allows them to travel abroad. The authority responsible for issuing is the Ministry of Interior.

Albanian passport is one of the 5 passports with the most improved rating globally since 2006 in terms of number of countries that its holders may visit without a visa.

Starting in May 2009, the Albanian Government, as part of a larger project to modernize and bring to the best international standards, has started issuing biometric passport and biometric ID card for its citizens.

In order to get the passport each Albanian citizen may go to the local post office and pay the price of 7,500 (seven thousand five hundred) lek(€50) and afterwards go to the Registry office of the municipality where the person is photographed, and the fingerprints are digitized. The data collected are sent to the center of production in Tirana. The ideation and the way of producing the new Albanian e-Passport is made in front of a single civil servant (personal identification, photographing, finding fingerprints, and digital signature) makes this document one of the most reliable and advanced in the world. The switch to a biometric passport was one of the conditions for the Schengen Area visa liberalization for the citizens of Albania.

Since March 2011 biometric passport and identity card can be requested at the Albanian consulates in Greece and Italy to serve immigrants who live there.

The data page of the passport is from rigid polycarbonate plastic and contains a microchip embedded in which are stored biometric data of the holder such as fingerprints, photo and signature. The data are extracted from the chip with wireless RFID technology. It has excellent safety standards and anti counterfeiting. The photo is scanned on the page and is replied by side and it is UV reactive. The alphanumeric code at the bottom of the data page makes it readable with optical scanners, such as the airport ones. The code includes microprinting, holographic images, images visible only with UV light, filigree and other details.