What can you do if you run out of free pages in your passport

What to do if the pages in the passport are over? Obviously, such a document automatically loses its validity. It remains useful only when it still has valid visas. A new permit to visit this or that state can no longer be issued.

There are a number of reasons why a person can and should replace his passport:

• damage;
• lack of blank pages for visa stamping;
• sex change;
• change in appearance.

One of the most common reasons is the lack of free pages. When you receive a passport, you think that you will have enough of it for the entire period of its validity. But many blank pages run out after a year.

Often the reason is not that you travel a lot, but that the customs officer who checks your documents is completely indifferent to your interests. They may place their stamp in the middle of the page, making it unreusable. Meanwhile, as many as ten stamps could easily be placed on it. The same is true with visas.

You rejoiced when you received a brand new passport and watch with horror how, for reasons beyond your control, its pages are thoughtlessly and carelessly spent. There comes a day when they are not enough to open a new visa. Do you really need to go to the FMS again, spend time and money on getting a new travel document?

What to do when there are no more pages?

On the Internet, on forums, you can find a lot of information about how people solve this issue. Be prudent - do not erase stamps and pull out visas. You must act in accordance with the law.

Under Russian law, you have two options:

• getting a new pass.

Second passport

Until 12/15/2015, only those citizens of the Russian Federation who needed it for work could receive a second foreign passport. Such a citizen came to the FMS with a request received from the director of the company and wrote an application for an additional travel document. In 2019, it's not like that.

Now all Russians have the right to two foreign passports.

• the need to go abroad at a time when the passport is at the embassy for registration;
• ran out of pages;
• you need to simultaneously issue visas at two embassies;
• there is a need to visit conflicting countries.

Some states will not grant you a visa if their officials find a visa from a hostile state in your passport.

One of the previous conditions was the need to have three border crossing stamps in the travel card issued within the last three months. Now this rule is no longer relevant.

If earlier the document was issued for the validity period of the first one, now you can get a travel identity card for a new period, that is, if one passport expires, you can easily use the second one.

Earlier in the second document, the installation page from the first passport was repeated, now you need to go through the standard procedure for obtaining a passport with an application and other necessary items.

According to the new law, the second passport cannot be of the old type. The rule applies only to a travel card with biometrics, issued for ten years.

Where can I apply for a second passport?

If you intend to receive a new document while the old one is valid, because there is one page left in it or for other reasons, you need to contact any of the organizations:

• FMS at the place of residence. The law does not prohibit applying to any public service department, but if you do not apply at the place of residence, you will have to wait longer than the prescribed period.
• You can also use the services of multifunctional centers.

The first document you must provide when applying is the completed application form., containing answers to questions whose purpose is to reveal as much information about you as possible.

Also, the provided package of documents should include:

• Internal identity document. It is necessary to provide not only the passport itself, but also its photocopy (first page).
• An arbitrary application for a second passport.
• If you are not employed, you also need to provide the FMS with a work book or an extract from it;
• Men between 18 and 27 years old need a military ID or deferment from the army.
• Old valid or invalid passport.
• . In some cases, other documents may be required. For example, if you are a member of the military, you need permission from the command.

The most promising option is to issue a foreign passport on the State Services Portal. It's about applying. This is done independently without red tape and queues, regardless of whether you are making a passport for the first time or ordering an additional travel card to an existing one.

Thanks to the state portal, you can save a lot of time on registration. It is especially convenient to submit documents to the FMS by appointment. In this scenario, you will spend at the office (assuming that you arrive on time) about ten minutes.