Diia’s E-Passport: Useless at the Border, With No Legal Force Abroad
The e-passport in Ukraine's government app, Diia (Дія), has been legally usable in place of a card-format passport since August 23, 2021. It cannot be used to cross a border, however, and has no legal recognition outside Ukraine. This article covers everything from its QR code that expires after 3 minutes, to logging in from abroad, to the features added in wartime, and the more than 24 million users.
In Ukraine, you can show your smartphone screen as ID. It’s the e-passport displayed in the government’s administrative app, Diia (Дія). Since August 23, 2021, this screen has been legally usable in place of a card-format passport in Ukraine. But this only holds within Ukraine’s own territory. This article covers what the app can and cannot do, based on legislation and official announcements from the Ministry of Digital Transformation (Мінцифри) and others, confirmed as of September 23, 2026.
An App That Started With Driver’s Licenses
According to the Ministry of Digital Transformation’s project overview, Diia is the brand name covering both a smartphone app for using electronic documents and government services, and an online government portal for citizens and businesses. The portal’s FAQ describes Diia as “взаємодія «Держава і я»” (the interaction of “the State and I”).
The app’s official launch event was on February 6, 2020. According to the Ministry’s announcement that day, the first documents to become available were the driver’s license and vehicle registration certificate, and the event was attended by President Zelensky, Prime Minister Honcharuk, and Interior Minister Avakov. Identity verification used the banking authentication system BankID, and the pre-launch trial reportedly drew 58,000 applicants among drivers, of whom 32,500 took part.
The same announcement states that, besides the Ministry of Digital Transformation, development involved the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Bank, aid programs from the US and UK (USAID / UK aid’s TAPAS), and the Swiss-funded EGAP program.
August 23, 2021: The Screen Becomes a Passport
Law No. 1368-IX of March 30, 2021 added Article 14-1 to the “Law of Ukraine on the Unified State Demographic Register and Documents Confirming Ukrainian Citizenship, Identity, or Special Status.” According to a Diia announcement, this provision took effect on August 23 of the same year.
Article 14-1 establishes two e-passports displayed in the app: the ID-card-format domestic passport, “е-паспорт” (e-passport), and the international travel passport, “е-паспорт для виїзду за кордон” (e-passport for travel abroad). The article’s main points are as follows.
- Created only if the person wishes, and free of charge
- Used within Ukraine’s territory for identity verification, proof of citizenship, and administrative and other services
- When presented, there is no need to separately show the paper or card passport, taxpayer number, or address documents
- Where submitting a copy of a passport is required, an electronic copy can be substituted
- Government bodies, local governments, legal entities, and individuals must accept an e-passport presented to them
How verification is done is set out in Cabinet of Ministers Decision No. 911 of August 18, 2021. The app issues a QR code, barcode, or numeric code that is valid for only 3 minutes after being generated. The e-passport is considered valid only while this code is present. It is also a condition that the underlying card or passport is valid and has not expired.
Diia’s FAQ states that the 1994-style booklet passport and the old-style international travel passport are not displayed in the app.
Cannot Be Used at the Border
Paragraph 3 of the same Article 14-1 lists three situations where the e-passport cannot be used.
- When crossing Ukraine’s state border (except where confirming Ukrainian citizenship is needed when entering Ukraine)
- When entering or leaving territory of Ukraine that is temporarily occupied
- When entering, staying in, or moving through a border area, or entering territorial waters or internal waters
In other words, what you show at airport immigration control is the physical passport, not a smartphone.
No Legal Recognition Abroad
What about outside Ukraine? In an episode of a Diia podcast, a Ministry of Digital Transformation official draws a distinction between two things. Legally, the European Union (EU), for example, has its own separate legal system, and Diia cannot be given legal recognition unless the other country’s own law defines what counts as an electronic document. In practice, however, there have been cases of people who fled abroad after the full-scale invasion showing Diia at a border.
A retrospective article the Ministry of Digital Transformation published on September 3, 2026 cites, as its own account, neighboring Moldova beginning to accept Diia documents in 2022, and Poland building Diia.pl based on Ukrainian technology.
No official Japanese guidance could be found on whether Japanese government offices, financial institutions, or the Immigration Services Agency of Japan treat a Diia screen as an identity document in their procedures. When completing procedures in Japan, bring physical documents and check with the counter which documents can be used. Terms that come up in Japan’s resident registration procedures are covered in Within 14 Days of Moving: Terms That Come Up in Japan’s Resident Registration.
Logging In From Abroad
Entering the app requires identity verification. At launch, verification used the banking system BankID, but according to Diia’s guidance, contactless NFC reading can now also be used. The steps are: tap the NFC icon in the app, scan the number of the ID card or international travel passport, hold the document up to the smartphone, verify with a facial photo (PhotoID), and set a login code.
The same guidance also states that logging in checks the taxpayer number (РНОКПП, RNOKPP) register, so the app cannot be used without a taxpayer number, and recommends connecting via a VPN using a server inside Ukraine when abroad.
Becoming a Wartime App
The Ministry of Digital Transformation’s project overview lists features added after the full-scale invasion: the electronic document “єДокумент” (yeDocument) for people who evacuated without their documents, applications for benefits for internally displaced people, and “єВідновлення” (yeRecovery) for applying for repair funds for damaged housing. It states that the app can also be used to support the military, buy war bonds, report damaged property, obtain certificates of address or criminal record, exchange a driver’s license, register or deregister as a sole proprietor, and get married.
On marriage, the Ministry’s September 3, 2026 article states that it launched an online marriage procedure that does not require a visit to a government office in 2024, and that user submissions (пропозиції, proposals) have exceeded 4 million, with 73,000 marriages concluded.
On the number of users, the Kyiv Oblast Military Administration reported on May 25, 2026, citing figures from the Ministry of Digital Transformation, that the app has more than 24 million users and the portal has about 7 million. The same article cites the following figures for services mainly used in 2026.
| Service | Figure given in the article |
|---|---|
| Online applications for the winter “єПідтримка” (yeSupport) benefit | 14.3 million people |
| Issuing a certificate of address (витяг про місце проживання) | More than 12.8 million cumulative |
| Paying traffic fines | More than 6.2 million times |
| Buying, selling, or transferring ownership of a car | More than 76,000 vehicles in 2026 |
Download Only From Official App Stores
Diia’s FAQ instructs users to install the app from the App Store or Play Market, and urges them to install only the official app in order to protect their personal data.
Knowing about Diia changes how you read the news from Ukraine a little. A considerable share of administrative procedures in Ukraine now lives inside a smartphone, and wartime benefits and reports of war damage also pass through that same screen.
Sources and article record
Sources and references
- Закон України «Про Єдиний державний демографічний реєстр та документи, що підтверджують громадянство України, посвідчують особу чи її спеціальний статус»第3条第1項12・13の定義、第14-1条の電子パスポートの用途と使わない場面。2021年3月30日の法律第1368-IX号で追加。2026年6月27日版の現行テキスト
Published by Верховна Рада України（ウクライナ最高会議）法令データベース · Checked: 2026-09-23 - Постанова КМУ від 18.08.2021 № 911「Про затвердження Порядку формування та перевірки е-паспорта і е-паспорта для виїзду за кордон, їх електронних копій」識別コードの3分間の有効期間、元の書類が有効であることの条件
Published by Верховна Рада України（ウクライナ最高会議）法令データベース · Checked: 2026-09-23 - Дія — у дії! Презентовано мобільний застосунок Дія та Національну онлайн-платформу цифрової освіти2020年2月6日。最初の電子文書、出席者、BankID、試験の参加者数、開発に関わった機関
Published by Міністерство цифрової трансформації України（デジタル変革省） · Checked: 2026-09-23 - Дія — державні послуги онлайнプロジェクト紹介。ブランドの定義、全面侵攻後の機能、アプリでできること
Published by Міністерство цифрової трансформації України（デジタル変革省） · Checked: 2026-09-23 - 7 років Мінцифрі: від першого е-паспорта у світі до технологій, які змінюють країнуモルドバとポーランドの例、オンライン結婚の件数
Published by Міністерство цифрової трансформації України（デジタル変革省） · Checked: 2026-09-23 - Перший етап режиму “без паперів”: з 23 серпня почав діяти закон про цифрові паспорти в Дії8月23日の施行、QRコード
Published by Дія（diia.gov.ua） · Checked: 2026-09-23 - Як авторизуватися в Дії без BankIDNFCによるログインの手順、納税者番号が必要なこと、国外でのVPN
Published by Дія（diia.gov.ua） · Checked: 2026-09-23 - Подкаст Цифра. Дія за кордоном: чи визнають застосунок в інших країнах?国外での法的な承認と実際の扱い
Published by Дія（diia.gov.ua） · Checked: 2026-09-23 - Поширені запитання「Держава і я」、表示されない旧型パスポート、公式ストアからの入手
Published by Дія（diia.gov.ua） · Checked: 2026-09-23 - Мінцифри: Застосунком Дія користуються понад 24 мільйони українців2026年5月25日。利用者数と2026年のサービス別の数字
Published by Київська обласна військова адміністрація（キーウ州軍政府） · Checked: 2026-09-23
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