MOSCOW, March 24. /ITAR-TASS/. More than 20,000 residents of the Republic of Crimea have made applications to receive Russian passports, deputy head of the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) Sergei Kalyuzhnyi said on Monday.

“As of today 5,500 passports have been completed, the Head of the Russian Federal Migration Service Konstantin Romodanovsky said.

Census returns showed more than two million people living in Crimea, Kalyuzhnyi said, adding “Much work should be done because it is not easy to generate such a number of documents. We’ve started the work and we’ll end it in due time."

 Russia’s Federal Migration Service hopes to issue passports to Crimean residents within three months, deputy head of the Federal Migration Service (FMS) Sergei Kalyuzhnyi said on Monday.

“Many people wish for Russian passports and of course there are queues. People want them as soon as possible,” he said, noting that about 20,000 Crimean residents were located in various Russian regions. “They have no need to go to Crimea to receive the passport. They can get it in any FMS office", he noted.

“The task is difficult and much should be done,” he said, adding “The key point is to receive an application from a citizen to make him to feel calm.”

“No Crimeans have given up Russian citizenship yet,” Romodanovsky said.