Immigration: New passports being issued, normal service expected from Thursday

Immigration authorities have said that new passports have started to be issued this week, with services expected to return to normal from Thursday. An Immigration media officer told Sun that because previously submitted passport applications are still being completed, a small delay is to be expected. The officer said new passports began being issued this week, and that among the measures taken when the receipt of passport stock was delayed, priority was given to those travelling urgently. "Since the pending applications are being cleared, there may be some delay. Therefore, some people have sent messages, and we are expecting that it will improve from Thursday, starting tomorrow. We are also completing the work by putting in extra hours," the officer said. Immigration had earlier said that new passport stock would arrive and that the situation would return to normal this week. At a media briefing last Thursday, Home Security Minister Ali Ihsan said the problem faced by the German company that prints passports had been resolved and that new passport stock would be received over the weekend. He gave assurance that starting this week passports would be issued in the same way as before. He also said at that time that 2,646 people had applied to have passports made and that it would take about five days to clear the backlog completely.