Russians are having trouble obtaining foreign passports

UA NEWS 24 March 2026 18:43

Residents of the Russian Federation have encountered widespread difficulties when trying to make appointments at Ministry of Internal Affairs offices to obtain foreign passports, amid rising demand for emigration.

This is reported by Verstka.

According to data from the “Gosuslugi” portal as of March 2026, most offices in Moscow and other cities with populations over one million are overloaded. In the Russian capital, each of the more than 100 Ministry of Internal Affairs offices displays a “high workload” status, and the system warns of a critical shortage of available appointment slots.

A similar situation has been observed in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, and Krasnodar. In Novosibirsk, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, and Chelyabinsk, only a few branches with moderate workload remain available. Users on social media report that they have been unable to schedule appointments to submit documents or pick up their completed passports due to lines that have been forming since last December. The growing lines are attributed to a massive desire among Russian citizens to leave the country due to the tightening of domestic policies and the nation’s international isolation.

After three years of unexpected economic growth, Russia is facing a sudden slowdown—war costs, inflation, and falling oil prices have begun to weigh on an economy that until recently seemed resilient to sanctions.

Consumer lending in Russia has fallen to a six-year low.

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