‘Passports in 10 days’ Minister looks to speed things up

Ria Taitt Political Editor Â

THIRTY per cent of citizens applying for passports do not show up for their appointments on a daily basis at the six passport offices where interviews are conducted, National Security Minister Martin Joseph told the Senate on Tuesday.Â

And the waiting period for persons seeking appointment dates ranges from one to two years.

But, on the bright side, 60 per cent of Trinidad and Tobago citizens currently have machine-readable passports.

The processing time has also been reduced from 54 days to 21 days and, ’is moving towards a ten-day time frame’, Joseph said.

He said DirecOne had increased the number of appointments granted per day by 15 per cent in order to close the gap created by the 30 per cent  no show by applicants.

’This initiative should also result in a decreased waiting period,’ he said.

The Minister reiterated that there were still some 30,000 passports waiting for collection at the passport offices.

He said it was posing a storage problem, since it was not only the passports but also the supporting documentation, such as birth certificates, which had to be collected.

Joseph said while the waiting period for appointments was one to two years, these dates are, ’usually adjusted upward as cancellations occur’.

Since March 13, 2009, there have been 101,853 people whose

appointment dates could be moved forward, with 95,556 opting to take advantage of this opportunity, he revealed.Â

Those not exercising this option were people who were returning from abroad to renew their passports and found it difficult to change their scheduled travel dates, or persons who DirecOne could not contact, he said.

In terms of the processing of the passports, Joseph said the Immigration Division had been making ’tremendous inroads’, resulting in the time being reduced from 54 days to 21.

The Minister said the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), of which Trinidad and Tobago is a member, has set November 24, 2015, as the deadline date for citizens of Member States to be issued with machine-readable passports for the purpose of international travel.

He said Trinidad and Tobago would meet this deadline.

He added that the ICAO requires that all contracting states begin issuing machine-readable passports no later than April 1, 2010. The Trinidad and Tobago Immigration Division began issuing such passports on January 27, 2007, he said.

Joseph said it was also important to note that until the ICAO’s November 24, 2015 deadline, citizens of Trinidad and Tobago can continue to travel to international destinations, including the United States of America, using their valid non-machine-readable passports.(Trinidad Express)