Dear Editor,
Last Thursday, my family and I went to the passport office on Camp Street to get our passports renewed. My family included 2 young children, one of whom had the flu. Even though we got up very early in the morning, by the time everyone got ready and we negotiated the heavy traffic from the East Coast into the city, we got there shortly after 8 o’clock. Sad to say, we were informed by the personnel at the door that they already had the quota of applicants that is allowed per day. I peeked through the glass window and saw that indeed, the room was filled to capacity. Also, there were dozens of people outside the building and on the road who, like myself, were not allowed to submit their applications.
Now imagine that hundreds of people leave their homes in the wee hours of the mornings every day to go to the passport office and many of them reach there at or long before opening hours, just to be told they arrived too late. This adds up to many thousands of man hours being lost. With the common knowledge that there is a great shortage of workers in the country at this time, this situation is unacceptable! In a country of only around 800,000 people, this situation should not exist. Let’s say half of the population are passport holders, with a passport being valid for 5 years. That means that 80,000 or less passports need to be renewed each year. So why this difficulty to get a passport renewed? In this age of technology, why can’t Guyanese be allowed to make their application on line?
It does not require much technological knowledge or money to do this. Many school kids can do this. Simple software like pdf can be used to fill the forms and then submit it online. The applicants photo can be uploaded too…the applicants’ photo will be taken at the passport office again anyway. A convenient date can be chosen for the applicant to go to the office to sign the form and complete the process. The US visa application is done this way. This solves 2 problems…the applicant knows when he is scheduled to go to the passport office, he will get through, and he will only spend a short time there. Collectively, thousands of man hours will be saved, which obviously will be beneficial to the individuals and the country as a whole.
In my case, I will have to take another day off work and the children will have to miss another day of school. When you compare the present system being employed to obtain/renew a passport in Guyana and the process to apply for a US visa, it is obvious that it is easier to apply for a US visa than to apply for/renew a Guyana passport. It is my hope that the subject minister and maybe even President Irfaan Ali look into this matter. Guyanese will be very grateful if you do.
It is not right for hundreds of Guyanese having to leave their homes very early in the morning, most without even having breakfast, to spend the greater part of the day cooped up in a building like chickens, just to obtain a passport. If we want to modernize Guyana, we will have to change these archaic systems and come out of the Stone Age.
Sincerely,
(Name and Address Withheld)
