‘Insane’: Why Aussie travellers are crying out for help

Frustrated Aussies are lining up for more than nine hours a day as they wait for word on this essential item for travelling overseas.

Australians are crying out for “help” as wait times to renew or apply for a new passport balloon to 12 weeks, with lines up to 150m long outside some state offices.

Residents are lining up around the country outside Australian passport offices for more than nine hours a day, “with 90 per cent of people only there because of phone line cut-offs” and having had zero email correspondence.

One furious Twitter user wrote: “I have applied for a renewed passport for my son 8 weeks ago and I haven’t received any update, I tried to call or email to the Sydney passport office, but no one picked up the phone line or replied via email either. At least you should have someone answer the phone?”

Another user said: “Still unable to speak to anyone at the passport office. 2 months of calling 50 times a day. Being on hold for hours.”

One woman wrote: “12 weeks waiting for my daughter’s passport – have emailed, no answer and cannot get through phone. We are travelling in 2 weeks! HELP.”

Photos capture the lengthy lines curling around government buildings in Melbourne and Sydney over the past three days. Picture: Nicholas Eagar/NCA NewsWire.

Avid travellers – who are lining up from as early as 5.30am – are reporting there is no sign of staff triaging the long queues or offering anyone updates on the hold up.

Lines are further exacerbated by applications not being able to be tracked online.

“It’s absolutely insane that in this day and age, we cannot track our passport applications. Absolutely frustrating and stressful,” one user wrote.

People have been forced to line up as early as 5.30am outside passport offices. Picture: Supplied.

Photos capture the lengthy lines curling around government buildings in Melbourne and Sydney over the past three days.

The Australian Passport Office instructs applicants to allow up to six weeks, but the Australian Federation of Travel Agents chief executive Dean Long said the organisation was now advising customers of an eight to 12-week processing period, with delays likely to remain till the end of the year.

“There’s about two million passports expired in the last two years and there’s just not enough capacity in that system to process the number of applications they’re trying to,” Mr Long told radio station 3AW.

The delays follow the expiry of more than 2.4 million Australian passports since January 2021, with the Sydney passport office applications almost doubling.

⁦@dfat⁩ so here we are in the queue at Sydney Passport Office. Why does it take this to get renewed passport! Eight weeks…and waiting… pic.twitter.com/P9JyV1iUzU

— Amanda Morrall (@oceanpoolswim) June 6, 2022

Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Tim Watts told NCA NewsWire the government was “urgently” increasing the numbers of both processing and call centre staff, standing up some call centres with 35 or more workers next week.

“We‘ll be putting on an additional 250 staff on board in the next six weeks to help with the processing of applications.” he said.

“This problem can‘t be solved overnight. We expect that with a big increase of staff over the next week six weeks with some starting this week, we will start to see a gradual turnaround.”

Mr Watts said the surge in cases, which hit a record high of 16,000 applications on Tuesday, could have been prevented by the previous government.

“I say this surge was entirely predictable should have been planned for,” he said.

“The results of the previous government frankly, dropping the ball on failing to properly plan for an expected surge in passport applications when Australia‘s border borders reopened, Aussies love to travel that’s no surprise.”

Queuing at the Sydney Passport Office at 6am, 2022-style. But where is @DFAT’s coffee cart? pic.twitter.com/IxCDAmCX1o

— Colin Cosier (@colincosier) June 5, 2022

The delays follow nine months after a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman warned that Australians with expired or expiring passports should get their application in as soon as possible to avoid delays.

NCA NewsWire has contacted DFAT and the Australian Passport Office for comment.