Congestion at passport office due to “peak” season – Immigration Dept

…expedited passports possible with additional fees

Deputy Chief Immigration Officer Superintendent Dennis Stephen has said that the months of July and August is considered to be a “peak” period and therefore, the line at the Central Immigration Office located in Georgetown is expected to be lengthy.
He made this disclosure during Tuesday’s edition of “Police and you”, a weekly
“What we find is that especially in the period of July/August a lot of persons may want travel. That is the reason why you find there is large amount of persons,” Stephen explained.
“However, the passport office is also decentralized. We have an office in Linden, we also have an office in Berbice. So, persons can be free to apply their also, we also have facilities for persons can able to receive or uplift their passport at various ports,” he further stated.
He advised that persons make use of the other offices during this period when uplifting their passports.
Additionally, he stated that if persons are desirous of an immediate passport, they would be required to visit the Central Office.
“We have the expedite passport that means a person that would like to have their passport immediately, what we do, we interview that applicant to prove that the reason for them to have that immediate passport and if they’re on the grounds that the information that they give is authentic then we provide that service to them and that passport would be available to them with a cost of $26,000 and that passport will be issued to them within two hours,” he explained.
The Deputy Chief also highlighted that they also cater for persons who are physically challenged persons as well as pensioners.
He stated that they facilitate persons with disabilities and those have priorities.
“If a person is above the age of 65 and that person did not travel for the past 6 months, they are entitled for a passport also the immediate passport,” he highlighted.
He however noted that, COVID -19 systems are still in effect and the immigration office has to abide by the guidelines set out.
“Because of the COVID pandemic, we have to observe the social distance. Social distance is very important and what we find the immigration department will have to observe those protocols.”
He further went on to say “however the administration of the Guyana Police Force would’ve seen it fit to only accept 100 persons or applications per day and what we did, we divided those 100 applications into 2 parts. We accept 50 persons at seven in the morning and 50 persons at 10:30 in the morning,” he stated.
“We also provide a waiting area that would be the further north of the immigration office. Persons who would like to remain from those 100 persons because we also cater for persons as far as Essequibo and the islands,” he said.
The Deputy Chief further explained that person that are uplifting passports are required to do so at 09:30h the morning to 13:30h.