Complaints continue about slow delivery of passports

Santo Domingo, DR
Although once again, the process for the withdrawal of passports is marked by multiple complaints due to slowness, delays, and disorder, the General Directorate of Passports assured yesterday that since last April 10, close to 1,500 passports have been delivered each day.

According to the spokeswoman of the Directorate, Josefina Capellán, although, effectively, the waiting time for each applicant is more than four and five hours “due to the immense amount of people who come,” in the dependency “everything flows,” and every day 1,500 people leave the institution with their travel document in hand.

“The process is flowing; we are working and only at the central headquarters more than 1,500 passbooks per day,” Capellán assured Listin Diario.

Other reasons for delays

Likewise, he affirmed that they are calling all those who suffered the delay due to the lack of passbooks and were given a reservation to come and pick them up gradually; however, many others arrive without previous appointments and delay the process.

“There are many people who are arriving without appointments and that complicates the room, if you have an emergency and you did not reach an appointment, what you do is that you come here, you justify the emergency and we immediately provide you with the travel book,” said the spokesperson of the entity.

She also pointed out that the extension of hours at the central office has been a turning point that has caused people to turn there; besides the fact that many people get desperate in the daily wait, so they leave, and when they come back, the next day, they delay the process twice as much.

“Too many people have turned to the central office, everybody wants to travel, everybody needs a passbook… Many people get desperate, leave and come back the next day, which also delays the process because those who came yesterday, come back today and then there are twice as many people”, said the spokeswoman.

However, she stated with conviction that “the good thing about the process is that it is flowing” and that people, although they cannot leave on the same day with their passport booklet, the Directorate has planned for them to arrive the next day and take it with them.

Complaints

Outside the central headquarters of the General Directorate of Passports, dozens of people expressed to journalists of Listin Diario their discontent with the slowness and the evident disorder in the final delivery process in ordering the travel document.

“This is a disaster here. There is no organization. This was not like this before; things have to be left as they are if they go well. Look, I have been standing for three hours under the sun, waiting for my passport to be delivered to me,” she expressed with evident annoyance Maritza Sanchez while on duty.

Along with her, other users appealed to various adjectives to define the procedure as “disorganized” and “disastrous,” in addition to personal stories of people who claimed to have paid for a VIP passport and to be suffering while waiting for the delivery due to several changes of plans and dates.