Passport publication directives (en Anglais)

Everything you must know, before the deposit of your application for a new passport. Documents you must bring, forms of application and other useful information.

The person interested, who wishes to obtain a passport, goes in person to the passport office, of his place of residence and deposits an application, submitting at the same time the requested supporting documents. In case the person has serious health problems that makes his/her movement impossible or extremely difficult and can be proved with a doctor's certificate of public hospital, an employee of the service goes to the person interested and receives the supporting documents. Greek civilians who permanently live abroad or they are there for certain reasons, can exceptionally submit the supporting documents to the passport offices of their contemporary place of living in Greece.

If it's a first issue, a renewal, a replacement or a loss – theft of a passport, the person interested is provided by the office with the appropriate application form. In particular, if the person is editing a passport for the first time by the Hellenic Police, according to the Law 3103/2003, he/she fills in the application with the code E1a, which has a colored green frame at its upper right part. It should be noticed that, even if he/she possesses an old passport, issued by the Prefectorial Administration – Courthouses – Consulates, according to Decree-Law 417/93, the demand for a passport issue is considered as a new one, so the application form E1a is used.

In case a passport has been issued in the past by the Hellenic Police according to the Law 3103/2003, which however has expired or it is about to expire within eight (8) months since the demand’s submission, then the application form E2a is used. This form has a colored black frame at its upper right part.

If it is about the replacement of a valid passport, edited by the Hellenic Police, the application form E3a is used, which has a colored blue frame at its upper right part.

Finally, if there has been a theft or a loss of a passport, edited by the Hellenic Police, and the issue of the new one is requested, then the application form E4a is used, which has a colored red frame.

The person interested fills in all the necessary personal details on the application form, according to the register instructions on the back of it with capital letters and a ball-point pen (bic type), strictly in black color. He/she should be careful so that all the written indications are within the limits of the strictly defined frames.

In the cases of the theft – loss passports, the fields of the application form that concern the old passport’s number (35), the expiring date (36) and the theft – loss’ declaration number (37), are filled in only by the service that receives the supporting documents, as they are come up by the electronic data processing operation, in which all the passport offices have access.

Except for the application form, the following supporting documents must be submitted:

All the supporting documents that accompany the application must be of an A4 page’s size, so that their processing from the electronical data processing electronical system is possible. In case their size is bigger or smaller, they are photocopied on an A4 page, which is validated and then attached as a supporting document, while the originals remain at the service’s files. In specific, many-paged supporting documents that involve the appointment of a commissioner or a judicial supporter, medical certificates of public hospitals, other documents that certify the necessity of going abroad, photocopies of passport pages being replaced, certificates of statements and results of loss or theft, medical certificates and other documents in order to issue a passport in priority, are kept in the files of the Services, where they were submitted. In cases of appointing a commissioner or judicial supporter, the necessity of going abroad, loss or theft and of issuing passports in priority, a validated copy of the first page or the one that certifies the fact or the situation the person interested is pleading, is submitted with the application form and the other supporting documents.

The Consulates abroad accept the supporting documents for the passport’s issue of the Greek citizens that live abroad permanently or temporarily because of work, studies, tourism or health problems. The supporting documents are submitted by the people interested and, besides of exceptional cases, are the same as those submitted in the inner country. Moreover, the same procedure is held, except for posting the supporting documents to the National Passport Center and their return with the new issued passports, which is carried out with the use of diplomatic sacks, through the appropriate Service of the Foreign Ministry.

A permanent resident abroad who applies a passport’s issue, if he/she doesn’t have a Greek identity card, a photocopy of both sides of which he/she is obliged to submit as a supporting document, he/she submits a birth certificate or one of his/her family status from the municipality or the community he/she is registered. Certification from the municipality where the minor is registered is needed and the photo is being affixed to the certificate if the minor is under 12 years old and if the minor is over 12 years old the photo will be affixed and the certification from the municipality is needed only if he hasn’t got a valid Greek passport. If this certificate is not the original, but a fax, it must be checked for originality and have an authentication of the appropriate Consulate.

In case of a draft dodger, permanent resident abroad, who is allowed to issue a passport, exclusively according to the article 54 of the Degree-Law 3421/2005, he must submit, except from the other supporting documents, a certificate of the appropriate recruit office in Greece, that certifies this draft dodging.

1. A current colorful photo, 40 mm x 60 mm in dimension, printed on analogical photographic paper, without the use of ink jet or laser printers. The photo must be taken under the perfect conditions and the printing colors must be neutral. It is necessary that the technical specifications while taking the photo must be followed exactly like they are described at the appendix attached, in order to achieve the best results.
2. A photocopy of both sides of the identity card. It is understood that the person must bring and show the original identity card as well. The juveniles under the age of 12 submit a certificate at the municipal roll, on which is sticked a recent colorful photo, with an identification scrip, according to the law.
3. Triplicates of cashing or deposits to verify the payment of the passport’s issue dues. These payment demonstratives dues involve an amount of money for the public service on one hand and for the cost of the passport’s booklet on the other. Their serial numbers are written at the fields (25) and (26) of the application form and are kept at the files of the receiving services. Detailed information about the cashing process and the height of the dues are assessed with Common Minister Decisions of the Ministers of Economy, Public Order and the Foreign Minister.
4. A payment demonstrative to certificate the deposit of the postal expenses for the mailing of the supporting documents and the passport, whose serial numbers are written at the field (27) of the application form.
5. A statement form of the Law 1599/86, in which the applicant responsibly states if he/she has been convicted or prosecuted or has been in trial for offences of the case a΄, paragraph 2, article 1 of the Degree-Law 25/2004, as well as if he/she has been declared a draft dodger or a deserter or has been forbidden to leave the country. In the same statement the person writes his/her address and the existence of special reasons that allow the passport allowance in exception, according to par.3, article 1 of the Degree-Law 25/2004, submitting any additional evidentiary documents. Also it declares if he had a passport issued according to the regulations of the Law 3103/2003 which is lost, stolen or asks for its replacement.
6. When the applicant is juvenile, except his/her presence, for the submission of the supporting documents, the presence of the person that has the guardianship is obligatory. When both parents have the guardianship, only one parent has to be present and the other has to sign a written consent, as far as his signature is witnessed by any appropriate governmental authority.
   
   When the parents can’t be in present due to emergency reasons, their place mast be taken from a relative of the under-aged which is authorized from one of the parents and the written consent of the other. The parents signature are confirmed from the authorities. If the parents can’t authorize a relative or there cannot be a written consent of one of them, a guardian must be appointed and the supporting documents must be lodged from the persons who are specified by the articles 1601 and 1602 Civil Code. Emergency reason is something unpredictable which can’t be prevented in any way and because of that the interested can’t take care of his businesses.
7. A decision of appointing a commissioner or a judicial supporter, when it comes to passport‘s issue to a person, who is under commissioning or judicial supporting.
8. A medical certificate from a public hospital, in cases that the person interested has very serious health problems, which make it impossible or really difficult for him/her to go to the passport’s office to submit the demand for the passport’s issue.
9. Evidentiary documents that might exist and certify the need of a passport’s issue, so as to travel abroad, in cases of treatment for serious health problems, injuries, death or serious illness of a relative, even if there are reasons that prohibit the passport’s issue to the applicant, according to article 1, par. 2 of the Degree-Law 25/2004.
10. The old passport, when it must be replaced for the reasons mentioned restrictively in the article 3, par.1 of the Degree-Law 25/2004. In those cases there is a check confirmation of the reason that the person interested pleaded and after validated photocopies of the personal data’s page are made and of all others that certify the necessity of replacement, which are held in the files of the receiving supporting documents’ Service, the passport is returned to the person entitled. When the new passport is received, the old one is invalidated, according to par. 3, article 3 of the Degree-Law 25/2004.
11. A certificate of the authority that certifies the loss or the theft statement, as well as the result of the conducted investigation, when it comes to the issue of a passport in order to replace a former stolen or lost one.
12. A medical certificate of a public hospital and any other additional verifying documents, which mention the serious personal health problems that impose a medical treatment abroad. In that case, a passport is issued in priority within one (1) working day since the receiving of the application from the National Passport Center.

13. Biometric features

    A biometric passport is a combined paper and electronic identity document that uses biometrics to authenticate the citizenship of travelers. The passport's critical information is stored on a tiny computer chip, much like information stored on smartcards. The chip is able to hold digital signature data to ensure the integrity of the passport and the biometric data. This combination of the biometrics aims to create an unrivaled level of security and protection against counterfeit and fraudulent identification papers. I.C.A.O. (International Civil Aviation Organisation) nominated facial recognition as the primary biometric with fingerprint as backup but not mandatory. The increasing threat of identity fraud necessitates the strengthening of security features in passports. The biometric passports, have new design and additional new security features. New features include pages with intricate designs, watermarks and a chip. The use of biometric information to link a person to a passport can help to counter identify fraud. In practice, biometric verification can be used at border controls and to verify the image on a passport renewal application against images held on record.   Symbol for biometric passports, printed obligatorily on the cover of the passports What are biometrics? Biometrics are unique, measurable, physical characteristics which are used to recognise the identity or verify the claimed identity of an individual. Examples include facial image, fingerprints and iris patterns. How does facial biometrics work? Facial recognition maps various features on the face, for example, the distances between eyes, nose, mouth and ears. The measurements are digitally coded and this can then be used for comparison and verification purposes. Is the biometric passport secure? The new Hellenic passport meets international standards as set out by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). It has many new security features including a chip. The new security features show if the passport is genuine or that it has been tampered with and the facial biometrics on the chip will help link the passport holder to the document. The data on the chip is been protected against skimming and eavesdropping, through the use of advanced digital encryption techniques. How is the biometric passport protected? The data on the chip is secure. It is protected through three layers of security: - A digital signature to show the encoded data is genuine and which country has issued the passport. - A protection against unauthorised readings (“skimming”) through Basic Access Control, a secure access protocol. - The data is locked down using a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), which provides protection against encoded data being changed. PKI is a digital encryption technology, which enables validation of the data as being genuine and shows any change, addition or deletion on the passport chip.