On writing the letters “e” and “ё” in international passports

The Consular Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry has published an article explaining what causes this problem and how to avoid it. Below is the full text of the article.

Media outlets periodically publish reports about cases in which international passports have been declared invalid because the names of citizens containing the letters “е” and “ё” were written incorrectly. The problem is caused by the fact that, given the optional use of the letter “ё” in Russian, consistency in the spelling of an applicant’s name has not been maintained when issuing passports and other personal documents, or when carrying out other legally significant actions.

In connection with inquiries on this subject received by the Russian Foreign Ministry from citizens, we would like to note the following.

1. In accordance with Part 3 of Article 1 of the Federal Law “On the State Language of the Russian Federation,” the norms of modern standard Russian must be observed when preparing citizens’ personal documents.
2. According to the rules of Russian spelling and punctuation (approved in 1956 by the USSR Academy of Sciences, the USSR Ministry of Higher and Specialized Secondary Education, and the RSFSR Ministry of Education), the letter “ё” is written, in particular, in cases where it is necessary to prevent a word from being read or understood incorrectly, or to indicate the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word (which may be a proper name).
3. The administrative regulations for the processing and issuance of international passports, approved by Orders No. 2113 and No. 2114 of the Russian Foreign Ministry dated 12.02.2020, stipulate that when an international passport is processed at a consular office, the applicant’s name (meaning surname, given name, and patronymic, if any) is specified in accordance with the identity document submitted. This is a previously issued international passport, or, in its absence, an internal passport or a birth certificate for persons under 14 years of age.
4. An applicant who has changed their name must submit the corresponding supporting document.

For our part, we proceed from the understanding that eliminating variations in the spelling of an applicant’s name and bringing personal data “to a common denominator” helps them exercise their rights and legitimate interests more effectively. We recommend that citizens carefully check the accuracy of the name in their passport and that its spelling matches that in other personal documents, first and foremost documents confirming the assignment of the relevant name to the applicant (birth certificate, marriage certificate, name-change certificate, and translations into Russian of these documents issued by foreign competent authorities, the accuracy of which has been certified in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation on notaries, i.e. by a Russian notary or consular officer).

If discrepancies are found, it is recommended that steps be taken to eliminate them: contact the competent authority to obtain a passport with the correct spelling of proper names. Resolving this issue in advance will help avoid problems, in particular when going through passport control while crossing the state border of the Russian Federation.

Source: Consular Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry
Original article here.