PROGRESS BEING MADE ON CUTTING PASSPORT WAIT TIMES
The government says passport wait times are reducing following changes to the new online application system.
An upgrade to the Department of Internal Affairs' online system in March resulted in passports taking more than 10 weeks to be processed.
Acting Internal Affairs Minister David Seymour said the application queue has been reduced by 34.4 percent to around 35,000 from a peak of close to 54,000 in May.
He said that was down to changes that made applying for a passport online easier.
"The department has established a dedicated team and is reallocating more staff to addressing the issue. There is now regular monitoring and IT tuning of the new system to make it work more efficiently, and it is providing additional support and training for staff across domestic and international sites."
Internal Affairs had set a target to issue 50 percent of applications within two weeks in June, but only 32 percent was reached.
But Seymour said June saw record breaking figures of online applications with 91.2 percent of all passports applied for being digital.
"In the month of June, the department issued 43,488 passports - almost 6000 more passports than applications it received.
"The department has exceeded the goal of issuing 75 percent for the month of June within six weeks, with 77 percent issued in the timeframe."
He said the department was still on track to process more than 90 percent of passports in two weeks by the end of August.
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2024-07-05T02:37:19Z dg43tfdfdgfd