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Since the launch of the new biometric data collection system, HayPass had received 7,700 applications as of 3 November, with 2,700 applicants having already submitted their biometric data.
HayPass Director General Regis Bouchier announced the figures during a press conference at Armenia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs on the launch of the new system.
Nelli Davtyan, head of the ministry’s Migration and Citizenship Service, said queues at service centres were short and, as of 3 November, citizens who booked in advance had been able to receive services the following day.
“Yesterday, we also made a brief tour of the regional offices. There were no queues, and services were running smoothly. However, this does not mean that the volume of services provided is low. It means that we can handle a much greater number of people,” Davtyan said.
She said that accepting an application for a minor’s documents had previously taken 25 minutes, whereas registration under the new system took three to five minutes.
“None of the 2,700 citizens already served spent more than five minutes being attended to,” she said, adding that the advance booking platform was operating normally, as demonstrated by the thousands of bookings.
Davtyan did not rule out brief technical problems, which she said were quickly resolved.
“A change on this scale inevitably creates new situations. Moving a paper-based process entirely into a digital environment is full of challenges. This is a good opportunity for us to digitise all our processes as well,” she said. She added that work was under way to ensure that the State Population Register held complete and accurate information on everyone required to submit biometric data.
Biometric data collection began on 1 November, when HayPass service offices opened in two shopping centres in Yerevan: Yerevan Mall and Mega Mall. The company’s 12 regional offices opened the following day.