Who needs to change their passports in 2026

Currently, there are four types of passports in use in Ukraine: two internal ones – in the form of an ID card or a booklet, and two foreign ones – biometric and non-biometric. Not all of them have an unlimited validity period, so together with Alina Kulava, a lawyer at the DE-JURE law firm, we suggest figuring out who needs to change their passport this year.

• The passport-“booklet” does not have an expiration date, but upon reaching the age of 25 and 45, you must contact the Migration Service to replace the photo. Similarly, if you lose your passport and change your last name. In this case, a person is offered to replace the passport with an ID card. In order to use the “booklet” in the future, you will have to go to court.
• The ID card (the latest internal passport) must be changed every 10 years if you received it between the ages of 18 and 65. Persons under 18 years of age are issued a card for 4 years, i.e. from 14 to 18 years of age, and those over 65 years of age are issued an unlimited number of times.

According to the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada, passports of citizens of Ukraine in the form of ID cards, the validity of which expired a month before the full-scale Russian invasion (i.e. after January 24, 2022), will be valid throughout the martial law, as well as for another 30 days after its abolition. The resolution also applies to passports-“books”: if a person has not pasted a photo card on time, then he has the right to do so no more than a month after martial law is abolished.

As for foreign passports, their replacement, regardless of martial law, is carried out within the period specified in the document. Non-biometric international passports are no longer issued after 2016; instead, upon expiration, a biometric passport can be issued.