to check documents and information provided by the applicant in writing to Ministry of Internal Affairs bodies, the National Police, the Ministry of Justice, offices of the State Tax service, academic institutions, military units, military registration offices, and correctional facilities. The information subsequently obtained from existing state and unified registers and other databases owned by the government or companies, institutions, and organizations, including photographs of faces, serve as evidence of identity.22 The fact that Ukraine’s Migration Service does not have one electronic database of issued passports makes it difficult to check personal data. In general, there is currently no access to processed materials, archival data and card catalogues, or information about passports issued in non-government controlled territories because Migration Service offices in these areas have stopped their work. Valid information about the citizenship of people who have lost their passports may be obtained from the State Voter Register,23 but the applicant or the Migration Service must submit the application (officials refused to provide information in response to requests made by Right to Protection attorneys). In exceptional cases, relatives and neighbors listed in the applicant’s written request may be questioned (when this person does not have a photo ID or checks have not produced results).24 However, applicants generally do not have the opportunity to invite three relatives and/or neighbors who have moved from non-government controlled territories and can provide evidence on their behalf to Ukraine’s State Migration Service. Thus, people from non-government controlled territories frequently cannot complete the identification confirmation procedure through the State Migration Service by administrative means and must resort to a more complicated and onerous judicial procedure. According to explanations from the State Migration Service,25 people from nongovernment controlled territories who have not received a certificate for internally displaced persons and do not have a residence registration for the non-government controlled territories must submit the documents required for a new passport to any 22 The Procedure for Processing, Issuing, Exchanging, Forwarding, Confiscating, Returning to the State, Finding Invalid, and Destroying Passports of Citizens of Ukraine, approved by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 302 of March 25, 2015, Clause 43, https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/302-2015-%D0%BF 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid. 25 Official website of the State Migration Service of Ukraine, https://dmsu.gov.ua/ poslugi/pasport-gromadyanina-ukrajni/id-vidacha-pasporta-gromadyanina-ukrajni-u-formikartki-po-dosyagnennyu-14-richnogo-viku-vpershe.html 14

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