From 1 January, the Mongolian National Registration and Statistics Office (MNRSO) has begun to change travel international passports to modern biometric e-passports. The cabinet initiated the changes to speed up clearing immigration and for the prevention of identity fraud. However, this change has resulted in a long queue of people applying for the new e-passports. According to Ch.Dashnyam, director of the immigration division of the MNRSO, over 1300 people are standing daily in the long queue.

Mongolian passport holders do not need to extend the validity of their existing international passports. From 3 January Mongolian Consulates and Embassies in other countries have been introducing the new  biometric e-passports.