GoL opens expedited passport service to public

The Deputy Minister for Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cllr. Deweh Gray, explaining to passport applicants The Passport Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), on Wednesday, September 27, officially opened the Expedited Service System (ESS) to the public.

Performing the formal opening ceremony, the Deputy Minister for Legal Affairs at the Foreign Ministry, Cllr Deweh Gray, stated, “In our quest to ensure efficiency and expeditious service to passport applicants who for some reason or the other have very urgent travel or appointment needs, we have set up this particular service called the Expedited Service System, where applicants can come in based on the urgency of their travel need and make a request, to the Passport Division, which shall, after proper vetting, process the applications and have the passports ready for pickup within at least three hours after the payment has been made and biometrics completed.

She emphasized that the decision to provide this service eliminates the middleman factor, that is individuals who many times will take money from applicants under the guise that they can get their passports processed within a shorter period only to cause serious embarrassment to applicants who have urgent need for a passport.

The ESS allows applicants to walk in and after going through all the formalities, obtain their passports within a few hours. This service comes with a cost of US$50.00 (Fifty United States Dollars) as service charge in addition to the regular US$50.00 cost of the passport. This means that an applicant will be paying US$100.00, once he or she chooses to use the ESS which is optional and voluntary.

The service will be available between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. daily. Applicants can visit the Passport Bureau to get further information on this service which is only available at the Foreign Ministry.

Applicants who come in with naturalization documents at first appearance will not benefit from the system as their supporting documentations have to go through other vetting and authentication processes. The Ministry informs that the regular processing time for a passport is five-working days.-Press release