Passport and Visa Service Employee Day in Kyrgyzstan Date in the current year: December 27, 2024

Kyrgyzstan’s passport and visa service is part of the State Registration Service under the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic. Its history began on December 27, 1932, when the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union adopted the resolution “On the Establishment of a Unified Passport System in the USSR”, and passports became mandatory in all constituent republics of the Soviet Union, including the Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

Following the collapse of Soviet Union, the Passport and Visa Department was created in the newly independent Kyrgyz Republic. In 2000, it was transformed into the Passport and Visa Directorate of the Kyrgyz Republic. Six years later, the President of Kyrgyzstan signed a decree that transformed the Passport and Visa Directorate into the Passport and Visa Control Department of the Ministry of Interior of the Kyrgyz Republic. In 2008, the Passport and Visa Control Department became the Passport and Visa Control Directorate.

In 2009, the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic created the State Registration Service. It absorbed a number of government agencies, inspections, departments and directorates, including the Passport and Visa Control Directorate. The functions of the directorate were passed over to the Population Registration Department of the State Registration Service, renamed the Population and Vital Records Registration Department of the State Registration Service in 2013.

Since both the now-defunct Passport and Visa Control Directorate and the State Registration Service trace their roots back to the 1932 resolution “On the Establishment of a Unified Passport System in the USSR”, employees of the Population and Vital Records Registration Department consider Passport and Visa Service Employee Day their professional holiday.

Like most official professional holidays in Kyrgyzstan, Passport and Visa Service Employee Day is not a non-working day unless it falls on a weekend. It is usually marked by informal and semi-formal events during which employees of the State Registration Service of the Kyrgyz Republic accept gratitude for their hard work and dedication. Those of them who have distinguished themselves over the past year may receive departmental awards, cash bonuses, and official letters of recognition.