Is a citizen of the Russian Federation obliged to carry a passport with him?

What does the law say?

What does Russian legislation say regarding the possession of a passport by a citizen at the time he leaves his home? Can the absence of this document lead to punishment?

The country's main government document, the Constitution, states that every citizen is required to have a passport upon reaching their 14th birthday. But the law does not say that citizens must always take a document with them when leaving home. Moreover, no other regulation or law states that every citizen must always take a basic document with him when leaving home.

Conclusion: you do not need to carry a passport: the law does not oblige you to do so.

Is there any way to replace my passport? Yes, to avoid problems if you need to confirm your identity, for example, to representatives of the law, you can present any other document instead of a passport:

Military ID.
Service ID.
Resident card.
Driver's license.
Refugee certificate.
Military ID, etc.

Samples of new passports and protective elements on them

Unlawful change

The second way to change the date in your passport is illegal. Not only young people, but also the older generation may think about how to falsify the year of birth in a passport. Everyone has their own reasons for changing the numbers in their passport data. For the younger generation, this means receiving benefits and privileges associated with age restrictions.

You can change the photocopy yourself using special computer programs for working with documents or images. Such programs include, for example, Photoshop. To ensure that the corrected date of birth is not noticeable, you will have to try very hard to falsify the data.

Forgery of the original is carried out by criminals who earn a lot of money from fake documents.

Important! Forgery of documents is a criminal offense. Please remember that any false documentation is invalid.

A passport is the main document of any person. Mandatory replacement occurs when a citizen reaches the age of twenty and forty-five, as well as if any error is made in the passport data. Persons who were born in 98 should remember that in 2018 it is necessary to replace their passport, as it will lose its validity. Thirty days are given to replace it. If during this time the citizen does not make a replacement, a fine will be imposed on him.

Only an authorized person has the right to enter information into passport data. Falsifying documentation is illegal. Therefore, in order to avoid negative consequences, you should not put yourself at risk. The criminal penalties for falsifying documents are quite severe. Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for the imposition of restriction of freedom, arrest or imprisonment for up to two years. The use of a fake document is subject to a fine of up to eighty thousand rubles.

From this we can conclude that you should not think about how to change the date of birth in your passport in an illegal way and cross the line of the law so that criminal prosecution does not begin. Changing the date of birth in the passport must be carried out at the appropriate institution.

It is always necessary to check your passport during any transaction: be it a purchase or sale, issuing a loan, receiving a deposit, etc., because you can run into scammers who, having a fake passport in their hands, can take possession of your money or property.

Forgery of a passport is a criminal offense, for which the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for liability under Article 327 of the Criminal Code “Forgery of a passport.”

Do police have the right to demand to see a passport?

Very often, law enforcement officials require you to present an identification document. And they have the right to do so. The Federal Law “On Police” allowed them to check the documents of any person.

At the same time, Article 13 of the second part of the law states that there must be good reasons for this action.

In particular, these may be suspicions that a person:

Committed a crime or was involved in it.
He is wanted.
Was found to have committed criminal acts.
Was identified by witnesses to the crime or victims.
Has traces of the crime on his clothes.

But at the same time, it is not at all necessary to prove your identity by presenting a passport. A citizen can confirm who he is using a driver’s license, student ID, etc., the documents mentioned above.

If the person does not have a single document, a police representative has the right to detain him for three hours until his identity is established. Therefore, in order to avoid finding yourself in a similar situation, it is best to always carry a duplicate passport printed on a printer.

Since 2015, an electronic identity card has been introduced

Legal change

The replacement of an identity document is carried out by the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Migration Issues, so first of all you need to contact an employee of this department. Changing your passport data may be required in the following cases:

the document contains erroneous data;
the information has not been entered completely;
spelling errors were made;
The data was entered in violation of the rules.

The most common reason for changing the date is errors contained in the passport. When contacting the Ministry of Internal Affairs, you must provide a birth certificate. It can officially confirm the presence of erroneous data indicated in the passport. If the error is recognized, the person must submit an application for replacement and provide two photographs. In this case, state duty is not paid.

But what to do if there is a mistake in the birth certificate. Is it possible to change age? In accordance with the Law “On Civil Status Acts”, records made in the maternity hospital can serve as evidence of an error. In order to correct information, you must contact the registry office and write an application. You should also attach a birth certificate and evidence that confirms the incorrectness of the entered data. The application review period takes one month. After a satisfactory conclusion, changes are made to the certificate. Only after this procedure you need to contact the migration service so that the employees change your passport data.

If you have a foreign passport that also contains an error, it must be replaced. To do this, you need to contact the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Migration Issues.

Who else can legally demand a passport?

Identity confirmation is required when applying to a variety of institutions:

Military registration and enlistment offices.
Educational establishments.
Hospitals, clinics.
Stores, if tobacco or alcohol products are purchased.
Banks during any operations.
Government services.

In addition, without a passport it is impossible to enter some public places: bars, clubs, specialized supermarkets, computer clubs at night, cinemas to watch “18+” films.

Important: you only need to present the document in person. It is unacceptable to provide your information over the phone. It is not recommended to present your passport to strangers who are not police officers or station/institution employees on the street, at a train station, or at the airport.

Plastic passport

Starting from 2015, the Federal Migration Service planned to issue citizens a new passport in the form of a standard plastic card with an electronic chip. In 2015, the FMS launched a pilot project to issue electronic passports; residents of Crimea, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar were the first to receive them. The mass issuance of electronic passports was planned from January 1, 2021, but the government ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to postpone the mass issuance of electronic passports until March 15, 2021.

The new passport will allow you to order and receive state and municipal services via the Internet. The services connected to the new passport will be handled by Universal Electronic Card OJSC. To use a new passport through a personal computer, you need a card reader - a reader that connects to all modern computers via a USB port and must support the PC/SC standard. The cost of readers starts from 200 rubles.

Traveling abroad: should I take my internal passport with me?

To cross the border of your state, it is not necessary to take a Russian passport, but it may be required if you first need to travel through the territory of your country by train/plane. To leave the Russian Federation and cross the border in the opposite direction, you only need to have a foreign passport.

Although it is not required to have an internal passport abroad, there are times when it can be useful, for example, to rent a motorbike, etc.

But there is one important nuance: the document is not insured against loss, so it is best not to take risks, but following the advice of experienced travelers, take printed color photocopies with you, preferably certified by a notary.

Thanks to this, you can always present a document to confirm your identity without constantly carrying the original.

How to find out in 2021: is it a fake passport or not?

Only a specialist can correctly recognize the authenticity of a passport 100%. He checks for the presence of watermarks, using a special ultraviolet device, looks for the necessary inscriptions indicating that the document is genuine, determines the clarity of letters, words, etc.

But what should an ordinary person do who does not know all the intricacies of the passport authentication procedure and does not have the technical means to do this? How to detect a fake passport from a citizen of the Russian Federation?

Ordinary citizens can also check their passport for authenticity if they know simple and simple techniques:

You need to evaluate the appearance of the passport. If the document is very tattered or worn out, then, according to the norms of the legislation of the Russian Federation, such a passport must be replaced. In this case, you should not enter into any large or serious transactions using such a passport. You can, for example, sign a preliminary agreement on it and pay a small amount as an advance. However, with such a passport you should not go to the MFC or to the notary, since these structures will not accept documents from the client with such a passport. And they will have the right to do so, since according to clause 12 of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 828, a citizen of the Russian Federation must carefully keep his passport. They have the right to require a person to bring a valid document.
Passport validity period. Clause 7 of Resolution No. 828 specifies the deadline for replacing a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation. A passport is issued at age 14, then changed at age 20 and at age 45. If the passport has been changed before, it means that it changed for some reason. It is advisable to find out from the passport owner exactly why he had to change the document.
Presence of inaccuracies and errors. For example, there is an error in the passport office department number. Also, the branch number indicated in the stamp must match the branch number indicated in the text format. Often, a fake passport contains errors in numbers and calendar dates. For example, in a calendar year, instead of one zero there are two.
Checking page numbering. If the pages are not in order, or some page is missing, this will indicate that such a passport is invalid.
Checking the page showing the photo of the passport holder. First, this page must be laminated. Secondly, the page should not be delaminated or doubled, otherwise this may indicate that the owner of such a passport has changed the photograph.
Passport verification in a special service of the Federal Migration Service. This service displays reference information, so the government agency is not responsible for the accuracy of the information provided.
Checking your passport photo. It is enough to compare the person’s face captured on the passport with the face of the passport holder in real life. There is no need to be shy and keep silent if something seems strange and the face on the passport does not correspond to the face in reality. Because neglect of this rule is the most common reason why various fraudulent schemes occur.

Passport verification through the Federal Migration Service service in 2021

If you want to be 100% sure that you are being presented with an original and not a fake passport, then check the document through the FMS service.

To do this you need:

Log in to the website www.ufms-gov.ru.
On the left of the page, find the subsection “FMS Services” - “Checking the invalidity of a passport.”
Enter the following data in the fields provided: passport series and number, verification code. Next, you need to send a request to the system. If the passport is invalid, the system will notify the client about this.

You can also download a list of all invalid passports of Russian citizens on this website.

International passport

This passport is a type of document; it also certifies the identity of a specific citizen. It is necessary to obtain a foreign passport when a person is planning a trip abroad. It is impossible to leave the country without this document and return.

Elements of protection of a foreign passport

Although there are exceptions when the receiving party agrees to allow Russian citizens with a general passport into its territory.

In the vast majority of cases, an internal Russian passport is invalid on the territory of other states, just as passports from other countries are invalid on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Note: if a person does not have a Russian passport to confirm his identity, he can present a foreign one.

What age

The age for replacing the main identification document is determined by the regulation on the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation dated July 8, 1997, number 828. It establishes the validity period of Russian internal passports:

From 14 to 20 years
From 20 to 45 years
From 45 years old indefinitely.

It follows that passports, depending on age, must be replaced at 20 and 45 years of age.

The law sets a period of one month during which it is necessary to submit an application for a replacement document. It is advisable to do this as quickly as possible, since immediately after turning 20 or 45 years of age, the passport becomes invalid, and therefore it is impossible to obtain many services.

After submitting your application and your old passport, you will be issued a certificate - a temporary identification document. A new document is produced quickly if you issue it at your permanent place of residence - within 10 days. If the passport is replaced at the place of stay, the period will increase to 2 months.

Where to go to replace a document

If the validity has expired due to age or for another reason, then you can get a new passport in one of three ways:

Contact the Migration Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It is this department that produces passports. You can apply for a replacement in any city , regardless of where you are registered and where you were issued the previous document. But if you contact the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the place of registration, they will issue you a passport faster.
Complete the document through the MFC. If your Russian passport has expired, you can replace it through the Multifunctional Center. In this case, you will not have to visit the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The MFC staff will issue you a new document.
Submit an application through State Services. When your passport expires, you can submit an application for a new one through the State Services website. In this case, you only need to come to the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs once - to pick up a new document.

Excerpt from the Passport Regulations, paragraph 17