At the age of 14, teenagers in Russia receive their first civil passport, they have an "official" signature, and the birth certificate ceases to be the main identity document. And the question arises: is it necessary in this case to change the passport issued on the basis of "children's" documents?
Should I change my passport at the age of 14
A foreign passport is a document that certifies the identity of a citizen of a country outside its borders. Of course, a birth certificate (for children) and a passport (for adults) are mandatory in the list of documents that are presented to the Federal Migration Service for obtaining a foreign passport. However, foreign and domestic passports are essentially independent documents. And, if you look closely at the pages of the passport, you will not find information on them, for example, about the series or number of the Russian document or the date of its issue, only the person's personal data will be indicated (last name, first name and patronymic, date and place of birth).
Therefore, obtaining a Russian passport in itself does not require any changes to be made to the teenager's current passport - you can safely continue to use the document to travel abroad.
Reaching the age of majority or changing a Russian passport "by age" is also not an "indication" for obtaining a passport, so at 18, 20 and 45 years old, you do not need to change it - unless, of course, the passport has expired and there are no other reasons for replacing it.
In what cases it is necessary to change the passport of a child
The list of reasons why a change of a foreign passport may be required is the same for both adults and children. It is necessary to reissue the document if:
- its validity period has expired (5 years for old passports and 10 years for biometric documents);
- the personal data entered into the document have officially changed (in the case of children, most often it is about changing the surname in the event of a divorce / marriage of parents, less often - the patronymic when the stepfather makes an adoption);
- there were frequent trips abroad, and the passport ran out of empty spaces on the pages set aside for visas and border crossing marks;
- the document has become unusable (dilapidation, torn pages, the presence of extraneous marks, and so on);
- the passport holder's appearance has changed dramatically.
The latter case - a radical change in appearance - is especially relevant for children and adolescents, because they are growing rapidly. And, if the photo was taken in the first months of the baby's life, it seems that after 2-3 years the child has become “completely different”, and it is impossible to establish that it is he in the passport picture. However, border guards look at photographs with a "professional eye" - they are specially taught to pay attention to the characteristic features of the face, and not to the general impression of the image, in addition, the evolution of changes can be traced in the photo on the visas. Therefore, often passport photos, which cause serious concern for the child's parents, in the end do not cause any problems with crossing the border.
If the child's appearance has really changed too much, the border guard will warn that it is necessary to take care of changing the document after returning from the trip. However, if this is the first warning, then he is obliged to let the child across the border.
A rapidly changing appearance is precisely the reason why children are usually advised to draw up not biometric documents, but old-style passports, which are valid for five years. In this case, you can change the passport at the end of its validity period, and most often there are no questions about changes in appearance.
