Men of conscription age can get passports only in Ukraine. However, there are exceptions

Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 will be able to obtain passport documents only at the bodies of the State Migration Service on the territory of Ukraine, if they submitted application forms after April 25 (including this date). Documents will not be forwarded to foreign branches of “Dokument” SE.

This was reported in the Citizen Service Center "Passport Service".

Such rules entered into force on the date of publication of Resolution No. 443 — April 25, 2024. The resolution makes changes to the procedure for obtaining passport documents for men of conscription age who apply to the branches of SE “Dokument” abroad.

However, passports abroad can be obtained:

• people with disabilities;
• guardians of people with disabilities;
• parents of children with disabilities;
• people who need constant care;
• accompanying seriously ill children;
• people from the Defense and Security Forces;
• injured as a result of Russiaʼs military aggression against Ukraine, who went abroad for treatment.

If citizens submitted applications to receive passport documents before April 25, when the technical malfunctions are eliminated, they will be issued in the order that was in effect before April 25.

Prehistory

Since April 23, consular services have been suspended for Ukrainians of conscription age who are abroad. The restrictions will apply until the law on mobilization comes into force (May 18), after which consular services can be obtained by updating the data in the territorial recruit centers (TRCs). On the same day, SE "Dokument" announced the suspension of issuing ready-made documents abroad due to "technical reasons". Issue was left only for children 12 years old, as they do not need biometric verification.

After that, more than 300 Ukrainians blocked the passport service in Warsaw with the demand to issue them documents. People have received messages that their documents are ready, but they are being refused.

One of the drafters of the law on mobilization, MP Fedir Venislavskyi explained to Babel that the rule on updating data when providing consular services aims to assess the real mobilization resource within the country. That is, the TRC will know that these people are abroad, and they will not be looking for them in Ukraine and will not spend appropriate resources on this. No one will be deported from abroad, because such mechanisms simply do not exist.

• Germany has declared that it does not plan to deprive Ukrainian men of mobilization age of refugee status. According to Eurostat, the largest number of Ukrainians live in this country — 1 286 580. And these are only officially registered people who received the status of temporary protection.
• On April 24, the Minister of Defense of Poland spoke about the readiness to facilitate the return of men of draft age to Ukraine, but did not name any mechanism that would allow this to be implemented.