Syrian Immigration and Passports Directorate Moves to Amend Decision Reducing Passport Validity

ARK News.. A Syrian media source confirmed that the Immigration and Passports Directorate is preparing to issue an amendment to the decision that reduced the validity period of Syrian passports.

According to Syria TV, Syrians who held residency or citizenship in a foreign country before 2025 will now receive passports valid for six years, instead of the previously shortened duration.

These developments follow statements by Colonel Walid Araabi, Deputy Director of the Immigration and Passports Directorate at the Syrian Ministry of Interior, regarding passport issuance for individuals who left Syria without registering entry and exit movements during the current year.

Colonel Araabi clarified that the measure concerns those who left Syria illegally after the liberation—after 8 December 2024—most of whom, he said, are remnants of the former regime.

He added: “This does not apply to those who left Syria during the revolution, most of whom have returned after the liberation and corrected their travel records, and many of them have obtained passports with full validity.”

Araabi noted that most of the procedures imposed by the former regime on the immigration and passport system against the Syrian people have now been resolved.

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