Long lines, impatient staffers and one constant runaround was how some persons described the situation at the Central Immigration and Passport office.

Previously one could have acquired a passport within three days, but now it takes one week. To renew a passport takes the same time and to replace one is even longer. Every working day the passport office on Camp Road is usually a scene of long lines stretching from the office counter to the compound’s gate.

This could be attributed to the high rate of migration and commercial banks requesting passports from clients when conducting business.

Recently, Commissioner of Police, Floyd McDonald in response to a letter published in this newspaper, which had raised some of these very issues, said the force had issued 13,600 new passports and renewed 11,000 for this year. According to McDonald, the figures did not include blank passports that had been sent to overseas missions. He noted that they had ordered significant amounts of passports which were expected in the country shortly and added that stocks were not exhausted. He said the demand was greater than the supply because persons were using the passports for identification purposes in transacting business at banks and other agencies.

McDonald observed that this regular use also reduced the life of the passport.

Additionally, the Commissioner of Police had said a number of persons had been reporting their passports lost and some of these reports had not been genuine.

He advised that the Immigration Department had decentralised the processing of passport applications with offices being established at Berbice and Essequibo. Besides, he said arrangements were in place for fortnightly visits to Bartica, Leonora and Linden to provide services to applicants. The Commissioner asserted that they anticipated that there would be a decline in demand later this year.

Stabroek News visited the office on Tuesday and these were the reactions of some persons: “I come hay since, 8 am and now is 10:30 and me ain’t get through yet,” Vishal told this newspaper.

The young man along with his sisters were applying for the first time for a Guyana passport, but for Vishal, the experience was unbearable. He said he had visited the office last Thursday and was told to return on Tuesday for his application to be processed, but when he turned up nothing was done. The young man said he was already fed-up even though there were many like him who had been made to wait.

According to Vishal, “the system, was too slow and dem officers ain’t get any patience with citizens.”

He observed that some of the officers were in the habit of issuing a date to applicants as a means of getting rid of them.

However, a young woman who was also there for the first time said the system was reasonable. The young lady acknowledged that the authority needed to be more flexible and reduce some of the bureaucracy in the system. For her there was no need to take one week to issue a passport when this could be done in two days.

She had no problem waiting in the long lines, since according to her long lines were the norm of today whenever one was looking for a service. At the office there are a few benches which could accommodate, at the most, 50 persons and those who can get a seat would then have to stand in the line for hours before being attended to.

Additionally, the offices open at 8.30 am and close at 11 for lunch. It then re opens at 1 pm and goes until 2:30 pm.

At 11 am the door would be closed and those who were already inside the office would be attended to during the break.

There are usually about four immigration officers working at the counter and these officers would rotate duties during the break to allow their other colleagues to have lunch.

Shondel said she was unhappy with the way an officer dealt with her a week ago. The woman told this newspaper that she had lost her passport through theft and was seeking a replacement. But when she visited the office last week she was asked to present her National Identification card and a copy of her birth certificate among some other documents.

Shondel said she complied and was asked to sit on a bench, while the officer went behind the counter. According to the woman she waited and waited but got no response from the officer who took her documents. It was about 3:30 pm when the front door was already closed and the officers were about to close off the day’s work when the officer returned to her only to tell her that she had to present the original copy of her birth certificate.

Shondel said she was furious, noting that she had the original copy with her all the time but the officer hadn’t asked her for it. She pointed that the officer’s action resulted in her wasting an entire day since she had gone to the office since 10:30 am. It was only on Tuesday Shondel picked up her passport. While she was elated at receiving it she had no complimentary words for the staff, declaring that “they don’t have the right attitude for the work.”

Others persons who spoke with this newspaper complained about the long lines, and the run around they had been put through.

Some of them suggested that better seating should be put in place for citizens, adding that sometimes pregnant women and children were usually made to stand for hours.

One man said he had applied for a passport and was told that no books were available.