When Paris Smith paid for her passport renewal in March for her first trip abroad, she had not been expected to wait 10 weeks.
“I’ve never been out of Australia, so that’s very nervous for me because I’ve already booked all my tickets,” he said.
The 20-year-old from Noosa, Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, is scheduled to fly to Europe in July on a business trip for her swimsuit brand.
Over the past month, he has called the Australian Passport Office (APO) more than 10 times.
“Sometimes I’ll wait an hour and a half and then they’ll send me an automated message and then the call will be canceled, so I couldn’t even talk to anyone. [one] not at all, “he said.
Ms Smith said the uncertainty and risk of losing $ 3,500 on flights and accommodation was stressful.
Mrs. Smith is looking forward to her first trip abroad. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Kylie Bartholomew)
“You literally don’t know. You have no idea when it will come. You have no idea if something is missing or if they can’t reach you,” he said.
“He [APO] it is not telling the truth to people. They don’t say it takes three months to get a passport [because] I would have paid the extra money to get my passport fast if that was the case. “
“Unprecedented demand”
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the ABC that there was “unprecedented” demand for its passport services.
The Australian Passport Office is four weeks behind in its processing queue.
Customers were advised to allow six weeks to renew their passport, but new and children’s applications may take longer.
This financial year, more than 1.1 million passports have been issued, of which 800,000 since November 1, 2021, when Australia’s international borders were reopened.
A queue forms in front of the Sydney Passport Office as desperate travelers search for answers. (Provided by: Lauren Thompson)
“Phone not answered”
Nadia Keisho, a mother of two, lives in Mackay, Queensland, and faces a 2,000-mile round trip to pick up her passports at the Brisbane Passport Office.
After the sudden death of her husband in March, she booked flights to Europe in early June for a trip with her two young children.
“It’s kind of a healing journey after something so horrible that happened and also to make new memories with my kids,” she said.
Ms. Keisho applied for her passport in March, Baby Luana’s passport in April and Seidia’s seven-year-old passport as a $ 380 priority application earlier this month.
Priority applications usually take two days to process, but in Keisho’s case it took two weeks for the passport to be sent, and he was told that the other applications had been “escalated”.
Ms. Keisho hopes the trip abroad will be an opportunity to create new memories after the death of her husband. (Provided by: Nadia Keisho)
While holding out hope that the two pending passports will be ready in time, the mother of two is preparing to fly to Brisbane to pick up the passports in person.
“It was a long, stressful and incredibly difficult process and it took a superhuman effort to finally clarify it,” he said.
“There’s this lack of compassion because they don’t even answer their phones so I can say, ‘That’s why I’m desperate,’ not because I want to sunbathe. [overseas].
“I would love to go sunbathing with my husband [but] he is no longer here “.
It calls for better communication
New mother Rebecca Smith appeared unannounced at the Sydney passport office when her passport had not arrived four days before she was due to travel.
Ms Smith of Albion Park, south of Wollongong, said the line was “50 meters long through the gate”.
“I basically said, ‘I’m traveling on Sunday. I need my passport, I’m not leaving until I get it,'” he said.
Mrs. Smith is grateful that her family vacation can continue. (Promoted by: Rebecca Smith)
He picked it up a few hours later.
Like many Australians, Mrs Smith and her husband Grant dropped their passports during the pandemic.
They applied for them and baby Carter in March, before a family trip to Fiji in May, but their passport never arrived.
“They [the APO] you just have to communicate better … put it on the web, update the messages on the phones. They all say another six weeks [wait].
“When you are aware that there is a backlog, let people know.”
“Excessive” wait, growing complaints
After losing family members abroad during the pandemic, Mojtaba “Moey” Mohammadi of Slacks Creek in south Brisbane is desperately waiting for his passport so he and his wife can reunite with the family.
- If you have been waiting more than eight weeks and have not been able to contact the call center, please contact the APO by email: passports.clientservices@dfat.gov.au
- Applicants can also send a message or complaint via “inquiries and comments” on the APO website.
- If you have paid for a priority service and have not issued your passport within two business days after the APO has received all the information, you can request a refund.
But after waiting almost 10 weeks and trying to communicate by phone, he has filed a complaint.
“When I hosted it [application] I originally said six to eight weeks because of the busy times and I can understand that, but going to 10 weeks is too much. “
Sydney’s Lauren and Luke Thompson applied for passport renewal for themselves and their two children two months ago, but so far only one child’s passport has arrived.
They are due to leave Australia in less than three weeks for a family reunion in Bali.
“I could have missed this family holiday just because my passport was delayed and I was given enough time to receive it [it]”Mrs. Thompson said.
Lauren Thompson with her husband Luke and daughters has tried to get into the passport office by phone and email. (Provided by: Lauren Thompson)
He said staff indicated they would escalate their case, but “I haven’t heard anything yet. It doesn’t give me much confidence.”
Concern has been added to the stress of the family traveling during a pandemic.
“You have to do all these things before leaving these days and you need all your passport numbers and … you need your vaccination certificate, but to do that you need your passport number, and we don’t have it, so yeah., it’s getting a little stressful, “Ms Thompson said.
So far this year, the Commonwealth Ombudsman has received 193 complaints about the deadlines for processing and communicating the APO passport.
In comparison, during the same period, from July 1 to May 24, a complaint was received in 2020-21, seven in 2019-20 and seven in 2018-2019.
Tips for travelers on the APO website this week. (Provided by the Australian Passport Office)
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Posted 7 hours 7 hours ago Sun 29 May 2022 at 20:28, updated 3 hours agoDun. May 30, 2022 at 12:19 p.m.