It seems that not only is passport renewal taking longer than in pre-pandemic days, but even passport collection can also take several hours as well, based on one woman’s experience.
Ms Viana Pang posted on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page on Wednesday (June 8) that she and her mother had been unable to collect their passports on their given schedule, despite having lined up for over four hours.
Ms Pang wrote that the date given to them to collect the passports was June 7, Tuesday.
“ICA officer also told us to come ‘anytime between 745am to 5pm and go straight to level 2, no need to queue. Show the receipts.”
She added that the officer told them that the expected waiting time was “2/3hrs,” or 40 minutes.
They then took a leave from work on Tuesday morning and were at ICA by 7:30 am.
When they got there, they were told to go to the second level to collect their passports, Ms Pang wrote, “The queue was mere IMPOSSIBLE!”
An officer, who noticed that Ms Pang’s mother was in pain because she had just had an operation the day before, “decided to allow us to go level.”
Once they were there, another 50 minutes passed by before they got their queue tickets for collection.
“By then it was already 847am. Officer told us to expect waiting time 2-3hrs, before we can collect our passports,” she wrote.
However, by 1 pm, they were still waiting.
Furthermore, an officer told them that it would be another four-hour wait.
“We left and returned to work!! This is totally not acceptable.
Queue from 730am to 845am to 1pm. Still waiting. Told to wait another 4/5 hrs.”
Some netizens commenting on Ms Pang’s post said they experienced the same.
One woman got their passport after three hours.
Another said she had to line up from “8am till 4.45pm.”
One netizen advised others to collect their passport after 4pm, when there were no more appointments.
Others said that they should apply online and collect their passports at the post office, where there are no queues.
/TISG