No more walk-in passport service

There is no more walk-in passport renewal service. That was stopped on October 14.

While this new move has eliminated the lines outside passport offices, the length of time it takes to get a passport or to renew one has considerably lengthened.

When a citizen visits the passport office, Immigration Division of the Ministry of National Security on Frederick Street in Port of Spain, or any other passport office in the country for a passport renewal he or she is handed a form to fill out and a piece of paper with a number to call for an appointment.

A call to the number given on the slip, in this month (November), a passport holder was told the next appointment date was in late March 2020.

But members of the public who have been fulfilling their appointment dates have said, on the day of their appointment they spend approximately an hour going through the process.

After that, they wait another six to eight weeks before their new passports are ready.

Asked why it is taking up to five months to get a passport, and if there a staff shortage or machines out of service at passport/immigration offices, Minister of National Security Stuart Young told Newsday: “I am not aware of any passport machines being down nor of any abnormal staff shortages in immigration.

“The timeframe for obtaining a new passport would differ depending on circumstances.”

The machine-readable passport (MRP) system was first introduced in 2007. But when it was updated in 2017, it was promised that the process would be smoother and less time-consuming.

According to the ministry's website, there is a four to eight-week waiting period for people who currently hold a MRP, and for people who do not have a MRP the processing time is approximately six-12 weeks, but this isn't exactly the case.

Young said: “I was not in office when the decision was taken to change to machine-readable passports. However, machine-readable passports have additional security features and the ability to store information that can be accessed internationally. International travel requirements dictate that countries issue machine-readable passports.”

To get direct information on the situation, Newsday called the office of the Chief Immigration Officer, Charmaine Gandhi-Andrews. But her secretary said: "The ministry has to contact her (Gandhi-Andrews) to make any comment to the media.”

In this light, subsequent messages were sent to the minister but all messages have been ignored to date.