Foreign nationals with residence permits in Albania will now be provided with electronic cards with biometric data, which is not the same as the previous version, which was simply a document in A4 paper format.

During the day, the Minister of Interior, Bledi Çuçi, was in one of the application offices in Tirana to get acquainted with this process that comes in the framework of the digitalization of the Civil Status services.

In his statement, the Minister marked that through the new document with biometric data, foreign citizens with residence permits in Albania will also have the opportunity to benefit from government services in the "e-Albania" portal.

"I believe that about 20.000 foreign citizens who have a residence permit in Albania, will now have a very good opportunity to facilitate receiving services in the Albanian state.

It is a card that I would call very modern, because in terms of features and information it has, it is the same as what Albanian citizens have, like an electronic card.

Having this new document is one more element to feel Albanian, as I believe they have felt so far, despite the fact that they had only a simple A4 document as a residence permit", said Minister Çuçi.

In addition, he announced that all foreign nationals with residence permits in Albania have 30 days to appear at the offices of the company "Aleat" throughout the country to apply for the new electronic document with biometric data.

“All foreigners who want to live and work in Albania are already registered only once in the Border and Migration Directorates of the State Police and then everything is done electronically, enabling the communication of the registers: the ‘FER’ register, which is the register of foreigners who have a residence permit in Albania and which is administered by the Border Directorate with the Civil Status Register", said the Minister of Interior.