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Delays as Govt rolls out new passports
On any given weekday one can expect to see scores of persons lined up outside the Central Immigration and Passport Office. However, the rare occasion exists whereby the waiting time goes well into the night. Tuesday evening was one of those occasions when citizens were forced to wait exhaustive hours at the Georgetown office until they were serviced.
Passport Office remained open hours after closing time, Tuesday night.
At the public office about 19:00hours Tuesday night, people related stories of being where they were forced to wait upwards of seven hours before they were called up by Immigration Officers to have their passport application processed. This is an uncommon occurrence as the Office usually closes at 17:00hours on weekdays.
In the case of “Troy” (who wished to not use his last name), he, his two kids and their mother, were forced to wait for over five hours at the office before they could have submitted their application forms.
According to Troy, it got to the point where he couldn’t stand to be in the waiting room any longer and decided to get some fresh air outside the public building.
Troy said that he was told by persons at the office that the reason for the long wait had to do with the issuance of the country’s new passport, which began this past Monday. Tuesday had a noticeably high number of passport applicants at the passport office.
“They had a lot of people in here today,” said Troy, “They had nuff people when I come here in the afternoon. I must be come and meet like 200 and something people waiting”. He continued to relate that when his girlfriend received her waiting number he was surprised to see that they were number 460, “and there were still a lot of people behind her!”
By 19:00 hours the office had some 40 persons waiting in the Passport Office to hand in their application.
On a normal day the Passport Office sees about 60 first time passport applicants, and an estimated 350 applicants seeking renewal or replacement of their official travel document.
An Immigration Officer said that Tuesday had over 500 applicants showing up at the Passport Office. The officer posited that the reason had to do with the facilitation of the newly issued passports by the government.
The officer said that the extensive wait time also had to do with the large number of persons who showed up on that particular day with passport applications. The official went on to explain that the numerous applicants could have been caused by the Passport Office being closed one day last week to facilitate the newly issued passport.
As a result, the officer said that the crowds from last week probably carried over to this week and could be the cause for so many hundreds showing up Tuesday at the office.
When questioned why the office would be opened at such late hours, the officer responded that it is the protocol of the office to accommodate people until all applicants have been addressed.
“We don’t have a fixed closing time. When it’s (14:00hours) we stop receiving new applicants but we can’t close without all the people getting serviced, especially not since they were waiting here for so long,” said the Immigration Officer.
The situation returned to normal yesterday.
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