Australians queuing for hours in passport nightmare
A week of passport chaos has left hundreds of people queuing for hours outside the Australian Passport Office as the department struggles to process tens of thousands of applications.
NSW
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Isabelle Stanton is desperate to see her family in Europe after three years helping her daughter battle cancer but Australia’s ongoing passport chaos threatens to destroy her dream.
Stanton is one of hundreds of sad stories, hopeful stories and shocking stories to be found among the people queuing for hours in the cold and the wind outside the Sydney Passport Office in the CBD.
These victims of the ongoing post-Covid passport bureaucratic crisis sit on discarded milk crates and donated camper chairs, desperately hoping to get an answer as to when they may be able to travel.
Stanton, a single mother, has spent three years dodging Covid while supporting her 16-year-old daughter in her fight to beat ovarian cancer, all without the support of her family overseas.
“Off the back of two and a half years of Covid and having a sick child, my family (in Europe) are desperate to see us. I’m desperate to see them,” she said.
“I’m supposed to be leaving next week, but I haven’t received my two children’s passports. I’m anxious, I’m stressed, there are no emails, you can’t even call – there’s no customer service.
“The only option is to come here and queue up for six-and-a-half hours or more. It’s not acceptable.”
But, despite the anxiety-induced insomnia brought on by the stress, Ms Stanton said leaving the queue without her children’s passports was not an option.
“For my daughter and me, going to Europe to see my family and for them to see her is crucial so I’m staying here, I’ll even camp here. But I’m not going away without the passports,” she said.
The chaos and long delays are the result of what the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are calling an “unprecedented high demand” for passports which has seen 13,000 to 17,000 applications lodged daily and a month’s worth of work backlogging the system.
But the hours spent in either the “Inquiries” or “Passport Collection” lines are excruciating.
Every now and then people pick up their gear and shuffle a few steps before setting down again, with those set to travel within 24 to 48 hours ushered into the building first.
But then people find they’ve been waiting in the wrong line.
After four weeks of calling the passport office without luck, southwestern Sydney father Ahmed Nahle, 44, took the day off work to stand in line from 6.30am.
“I was standing there for three hours, then the security guard asked me what I was here for and told me without an email letter I couldn’t stand in the passport collection line,” Nahle said.
Without signs to indicate which line is which, it is a distressingly common mistake that costs people their position. Defeated, some head back home to try again the next day.
“We’re supposed to leave on Monday, so I have only two more days to come back and wait in line … there is no plan B – I’ve already paid $10,000 for the (plane) tickets,” he said.
“We’re visiting my family in Lebanon. I haven’t seen them in three years and my father, he’s started having Alzheimer’s disease, so I just want to visit him and see if he still remembers me. That’s why we need to make it there.”
The queue confusion is just another symptom of what Newcastle mum Chantelle Sanders said is the “critical issue” underlying the chaos.
“It’s the lack of communication,” she said, “It’s disappointing, really unimpressive and frustrating.”
Despite paying the extra $225 priority fee to fast-track her daughter’s passport application, she’s waiting in line like everyone else. And, like everyone else in line, Sanders has no information, no updates and was unsuccessful in calling the Sydney passport office.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said the delays were due to an “unprecedented high demand” for its passport services.
This comes after Assistant Minister Foreign Affairs Tim Watts blamed the former government for “failing to plan” for the “predictable” increase in demand once international travel bans lifted.
“We normally receive between 7000 to 9000 applications per working day,” the DFAT spokesperson said.
“Currently, we are receiving 13,000 to 17,000 applications per working day.”
Watts has announced that by September an additional 1100 extra staff will be supplemented to the Australian Passport Office to help with the backlog.
“The APO will stand up a further 340 call centre staff and around 470 processing staff by the end of July … (with) an additional 300-plus more processing staff by the end of September,” DFAT added.
Within the current financial year, the APO issued 1.3 million passports, over 85 per cent of which were issued since November last year when travel restrictions eased.
Despite a month’s worth of backlogged applications, DFAT said the majority of applications were being processed within six weeks.
“There will, however, always be cases of applications taking longer to process than six weeks because actual turnaround times depend on the type and complexity of individual applications,” it said.
Children’s passports and first-time applicants require more security checks and may take longer than six weeks to process.
But common mistakes such as uploading partial scans of documents can also make the verification process harder.
“Customers can minimise processing times by starting their application online and ensuring they submit the required documentation in full,” DFAT said.
“We often find delays occur when applicants don’t provide all the necessary information or haven’t met other requirements.
“It’s also important to note that if customers lodge more than one application for themselves and other family members together, they might arrive at different times because all applications are assessed individually.”
Eligible individuals can pay an additional priority fee of $225 to fast track the processing time.
“I placed my application almost 10 weeks ago and that’s it,” she said. “I’ve received nothing from the passport office – can’t get through on the phones – you actually get hung up on now, there’s no way to get through to them, so I have no option but to line up with everybody else.”
To combat the huge delays and camping crowds, an additional 1,100 extra staff is set to be added to the passport office by September this year.
However, as the only passport office in NSW, 56-year-old Peter Tjørnelund travelled more than 300km from Forster and equipped himself for a second day of waiting.
“I have my headphones, tablet, snacks, protein bars, a change of clothes in case it gets hot or cold,” he said.
He sits on a camper-chair, coffee in the cup-holder and jacket hung on the chair’s back, waiting to ask officers about his son’s passport application.
“My son hasn’t been back (to Denmark) with me for ten years … it’s exceptionally important for us – I need to catch up with my family,” he said.
After missing his sister’s golden anniversary, he said the thought of missing out on another family moment overseas was “distressing”.
After missing his sister’s golden anniversary, he said the thought of missing out on another family moment overseas was “distressing”.
And like the many people stuck in line, Mr Tjørnelund said there was no way he was giving up.
And like the many people stuck in line, Mr Tjørnelund said there was no way he was giving up.
“I’m probably not walking out of the office until I get some answers.” he said.
“I’m probably not walking out of the office until I get some answers.” he said.
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