The European Commission has updated the list of documents that EU countries will no longer accept. Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden will stop letting Russians in with non-biometric passports from October 1, 2026. Sweden will continue to accept such documents until December 31, but only with a valid visa or residence permit from an EU or Schengen country.
The restrictions in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg will apply to ordinary and service non-biometric (five-year) passports of the old format. Sweden will also stop recognizing non-biometric diplomatic and service passports from January 1, 2027.
With these four countries, 15 European states now refuse to recognize Russian non-biometric passports. Germany, France, Finland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Iceland and Denmark had previously banned entry with them.
Russia currently issues two types of foreign passports: biometric ones valid for ten years and non-biometric ones valid for five. Getting a non-biometric passport takes less time and costs less. The main reason for the restrictions, as explained by the Russian Union of Travel Industry, is document security: the lack of an electronic chip makes it harder to automatically verify a passport's authenticity and increases the risk of forgery.