Applicants complain about frustration at passport office

Applicants of the new biometric travelling passports have complained about the frustration they go through in acquiring the document.

Some persons who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on condition of anonymity listed some of their grievances as the never-moving long queues they join daily, and the repeated rescheduling of the date their passports are due for collection.

A young man in his 30’s said he misplaced the old passport and was in the re-application since January.

The GNA spoke to a worker at the passport office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to explain the process in acquiring a passport.

He explained that after an applicant buys a passport form and attach a birth certificate and other relevant documents to it, he or she has to join a queue early in the morning at the passport office to be part of the 100 persons that would be selected that day for picture capturing and biometric verification.

He explained that if one does not want to go through the normal process, he provides a middleman that would go through the entire process for the applicant within days instead of the two to six months that attracts an extra cost of GH? 200.00 to GH? 500.00.