passport wait times
Image by gordonr
While claiming there was a 37 minute average wait time on their website and demonstrating through some nifty charts and graphs the average weekly volume, I headed over at 11:45 to the passport office to put in my renewal.
11:45 – arrive, get in "reception" line where I’m issued a number
11:49 – receive number for waiting, decide to head downstairs for lunch (calculated risk) – they were at #A75 and I had #A99. So at least 24 people ahead of me.
12:15 – come back nervous that they had passed me by. Instead, they were at #A82. They’d done 7 people in roughly 20 minutes…
12:45 – #A85, stil 14 to go. Decide to leave, do some errands, and come back. Only 1/3 of all total wickets are open
1:15 – come back, now at #A95. They’ve picked up the pace
1:40 – #A97 isn’t there! Yes. Move ahead one spot
1:45 – #A99 – I feel like screaming "Bingo!"
1:50 – papers handed over, watch clerk type, pay my , passport will be ready in a couple of weeks.
Total time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.
Website avg wait time: 37 minutes.
Not sure how they’re calculating this. But don’t trust the website. Which is a shame, because it would be nice if it worked properly.
The passport renewal procedure works well
My passport was expiring by May 2014, and I realized that one must apply for a renewal within 6 months of its expiry (Most countries require that the passport be valid for a period of 6 months after the dates of the proposed visit, which means that if …
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Filipino expatriates slam draft law that links regular remittance to passport …
Image Credit: Supplied; Nhel Morona and Ernesto Refugio. Dubai: Filipino expatriates in the UAE slammed a draft law filed in Manila that would compel them to regularly send money to their family back home or risk not getting their passports renewed. A …
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Valid passports necessary for iqama renewal, expats told
He said the Saudi government recently introduced new laws making it mandatory for expatriates to have valid passports to renew their iqamas. He said many Pakistanis run into trouble because they do not check the expiry dates on their passports. Doing …
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