TT Passport wait time decreased

Depending on which passport office you decide to visit, Trinidad and Tobago citizens can now get passport appointments within the same month.

This is a sharp decrease from an almost five-month wait being given to nationals as recently as February, making TT the country in the Caribbean with the longest wait times.

The change comes two months after Newsday first reported that TT had the longest wait time in the Caribbean for passport applications.

When contacted in January, Minister of National Security Stuart Young told Newsday he had received a report from his permanent secretary that attributed the long wait times to the implementation of a call centre.

He did not give details on the hiccups.

When Newsday contacted immigration offices today, appointments were offered for as early as March 23 and as late as April 17.

That is in line with Young's February commitment to have wait times decreased to one month.
Newsday attempted to contact Chief Immigration Officer Charmaine Gandhi-Andrews on Monday to find out what parts of the process needed to be changed to improve efficiency but did not receive a response at the time this story was published.

The same question was sent to Young. While he did not say how the process needed to be adjusted, he thanked immigration officers for working to make the process more accessible for the public by increasing efficiency.