If you have to renew your passport in Israel, there’s only one thing someone may tell you, “good luck.” During the pandemic many Israelis were reluctant to travel. Now that things are getting closer to normal, people are making travel plans once again and realizing that their passports are expired. There’s currently a backlog of 700,000 Israeli waiting for a new passport. Israel Population and Immigration Authority director Tomer Moskowitz is certain that new measures placed will reduce this backlog.
The first measure in place is the creation of a new passport office in Bnei Brak. Sometimes in situations like these, when people need to urgently travel out of the country, a fast temporary remedy is extremely helpful. This new office will allocate temporary passports for NIS 400 that must be paid online beforehand. This is less expensive than the “emergency passport” office in Ben Gurion Airport where a fast passport will run you NIS 820. By the end of May, it is estimated that 5,000 people will have received such passports from the Bnei Brak office.
The next measure set in place is at the factory where the passports are produced. A new night shift is set to reduce the six-week waiting period. There are additional plans to introduce a third night shift at the plant to cut wait time even further. The Population and Immigration Authority has already hired 20 new employees and set to hire an additional 60 by the end of June which also aims to reduce overall wait time for Israelis needing their passports.
Israelis who hold dual citizenship can travel out of the country on their foreign passports until January 1, 2023.
After facing a lot of criticism from the Knesset Interior Affairs Committee, Moskowitz is confident that the public will soon feel the ease on the passport backlog in the coming weeks. Let’s sure hope so.
