site.btaGovernment Plans to Double Validity of Foreign Travel Passports

Sofia, August 8 (BTA) - The validity of Bulgarian foreign travel passports will be doubled to 10 years from the current 5 years, Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said on the Bulgarian National Television on Tuesday. The fees for some services provided by Bulgarian diplomatic representations abroad will be lowered, including by a quarter for issue of a temporary Bulgarian passport abroad (to 50 euro from the current 67 euro).

The Minister said that a public consultation has started for lowering the fees and one is due to open Tuesday on revisions to the Bulgarian IDs law.

"Actually, this revision we are contemplating [for reducing the ID issue fees] will be most tangible for our compatriots abroad," said she.

Another major change will be the option for on-line application for issue of Bulgarian IDs.

On August 4, the government uploaded on its portal for public consultation proposed revisions to several ordinances, including those mentioned by Zaharieva. They are open for comments and proposals until September 5.

One of the proposals is to scrap the requirement to pay the due fees for document-related services in government stamps as it requires people to line up at the competent Foreign Ministry department, then go to the post office to buy stamps and go back to the Foreign Ministry unit to get the service.

Also, the Foreign Ministry and the Bulgarian diplomatic and consular representations will stop charging fees for tracking down individuals abroad because such actions are within the functional competence of the Foreign Ministry.