Citizens ‘strongly advised’ not to book overseas trips without valid passport

Irish citizens are strongly advised not to book international trips unless they have a valid passport, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said, amid complaints about delays in the processing of applications.

A number of TDs said they had been inundated with correspondence from constituents who were planning to go abroad after Covid-19 restrictions on international travel eased, but could not because their passports did not arrive in time.

In a letter to members of the Oireachtas this week, Mr Coveney said it could take up to 40 working days for some passport applications to be processed, with the service facing “peak demand” at present.

“I know that many of you are receiving an increased number of passport queries to your constituency offices as international travel has now resumed,” he said.

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“I greatly appreciate and commend the efforts of passport service staff who have been working with resilience and professionalism to serve our citizens, notwithstanding the many personal and operational challenges presented by Covid-19 restrictions throughout 2021.”

Mr Coveney said an additional 80 staff had been assigned to the service to “assist in the scaling up” of its operations.

However, he added: “Our strong advice to citizens is not to book travel until you are in possession of a valid passport.”

Since May, some 325,148 passports have been produced by the service, which represents 83 per cent of the total of 391,841 produced this year.

During July, the month when international travel curbs were eased, some 86,452 applications were received and 103,083 were produced.

Recruitment

“My department continues to work with the Public Appointments Service to finalise a recruitment campaign for September to hire more staff to meet the forecasted demand for passports and to address the foreign birth registration applications, paused during the Covid-19 restrictions,” Mr Coveney said.

The processing times for valid online applications are 10 working days for “simple” adult renewals, 15 working days for “complex” renewals, including children, and 40 working days for first-time applications.

“First-time applications for adults and children are extremely complex to process, to ensure the identity of the applicant, their entitlement to Irish citizenship and, in the case of children, that all guardians have consented to the issuing of the passport,” Mr Coveney said in his letter.

“Particular complexity relates to the process of application from children born in Ireland after 2004, due to the need to verify entitlement for Irish citizenship.”

Mr Coveney said the service was “not in a position” to process incomplete applications, which would “inevitably encounter longer processing times”.

“Of course, when an application has been completed correctly and all documentation has been received, the passport service is making every effort to issue such passports as expeditiously as possible.”

He said the passport service is still also operating an emergency service for priority cases. This could include cases where the person is going to school or college; if a parent has to be there in-person to accompany a child; to take exams; to work or travel for business; or to attend essential medical, health or dental appointments.