Parliament on Thursday adopted amendments to the law on identity documents. Seventy-nine MPs from different parties voted in favor of these changes. According to the new rules, an identity card (cartea de identitate) will be introduced instead of an identity card. A separate residence card (cartea de rezidenţă) will be created for foreigners, which will consolidate their rights and protection under the law.
The new cards will contain biometric data and electronic signature data. They will be issued in two languages – Romanian and English. It is important to note that they will not contain residence information, and this information will be available through the government platform MConnect. This means that citizens will no longer have to change their documents when they change their residence address.
These new cards will allow for more efficient use of government services digitally and possibly be used as travel documents for countries that recognize them as such. Currently, Moldovan ID card holders can only travel to Turkey and Ukraine.
The changes will come into force once the technical capacity to issue the new cards has been reached, but no later than March 31, 2025. Following the publication in Monitorul Oficial, the government will submit proposals to Parliament within six months to harmonize the current legislation with the new norms.
