Passport warning to Australians for ‘the foreseeable future’
Australians have been warned they should allow six weeks for new passports and passport renewals for “the foreseeable future”.
There have been massive queues at passport offices around the country in recent weeks, due to a massive surge in demand now that international travel has returned.
Some people have been waiting for eight weeks.
Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tim Watts, says Passport Office workers are staying back late, and new staff are being recruited to ease the strain.
“The processing times are unacceptable at the moment, and particularly the time it takes for people to reach the contact centres,” he told Neil Mitchell.
“We’re putting 35 more staff into those call centres this week, and an extra 35 in next week to try and avoid the need for people to go down to the Passport Office.
“We’re putting 250 more staff in over the next six weeks to help with processing those applications and to get through the backlog.”
Mr Watts pointed the finger at the previous coalition government for the disaster.
“It’s entirely predictable that when the rest of the world opened up, Aussies would want to get out there! The fact that Aussies love to travel is no surprise to anyone,” he said.
“But the resources weren’t provided … to deal with this completely expected surge, by the previous government.”
Prior to the pandemic, the Australian Passport Office received between 7000 and 9000 passport applications per day.
Earlier this week, the office received 16,417 applications on one day — the highest number ever recorded in a single day.
Before COVID-19 hit, the average wait for a passport was 15 business days.
But Mr Watts warned Australians not to expect a return to those processing times in the foreseeable future.
“For the foreseeable future we’re advising people to put your applications in six weeks in advance,” he said.
People who have been waiting for more than six weeks and have an urgent need to travel can email passports.clientservices@dfat.gov.au to check in on the status of their passport application.
Press PLAY below to hear when Passport Office delays are likely to ease