SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

Shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

For the first time since the 2023 launch of the e-ap­point­ment plat­form, man­aged by the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion un­der the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty, cit­i­zens are now ex­pe­ri­enc­ing un­prece­dent­ed de­lays in se­cur­ing pass­port ap­point­ments.

Book­ing an ap­point­ment on the on­line plat­form, which would have pro­vid­ed a date in mere weeks, has now turned in­to months.

The ear­li­est ap­point­ment for a pass­port is in No­vem­ber, which is a six-month wait.

The ex­tend­ed wait times for ap­point­ments have pushed more peo­ple to re­ly on the walk-in sys­tem for their ur­gent trav­el needs at the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion’s five op­er­a­tional of­fices in San­gre Grande, Port-of-Spain, Point Fortin, Ch­agua­nas and To­ba­go.

How­ev­er, the walk-in sys­tem is not de­signed to han­dle large vol­umes of peo­ple.

The Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion has a sixth of­fice in San Fer­nan­do, which shut its doors last Feb­ru­ary for re­fur­bish­ment works, but was nev­er re­opened.

This clo­sure has put a strain on the work­load in the Ch­agua­nas and Port-of-Spain of­fices.

The long wait for ap­point­ment dates has sparked grow­ing frus­tra­tion and anger among cit­i­zens, some of whom have tak­en to so­cial me­dia to com­plain about the length of time they have had to wait, de­scrib­ing the sit­u­a­tion as out­ra­geous, un­ac­cept­able and ridicu­lous.

Their out­rage came against the back­drop of re­cent claims made by Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der that a cor­rup­tion rack­et has been un­cov­ered at the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion, where mil­lions of dol­lars were al­leged­ly paid to im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials and em­ploy­ees over the years for cit­i­zen­ship, pass­port ap­point­ments, res­i­den­cy per­mits and work per­mits.

Alexan­der said of­fi­cials have been charg­ing $90,000 and up­wards for res­i­den­cy pa­pers and work per­mits for this coun­try.

The Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion is re­spon­si­ble for ef­fi­cient­ly and ef­fec­tive­ly fa­cil­i­tat­ing the move­ment of peo­ple in­to and out of T&T, as well as pro­vid­ing an ef­fi­cient pass­port ser­vice.

The five of­fices deal with 150 ap­point­ments dai­ly.

The sit­u­a­tion has be­come so grave that it’s now tak­ing the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion three months to process a pass­port, a process which nor­mal­ly takes four weeks.

Pay­ing an ex­tra $600 for an ex­pe­dit­ed pass­port, which ini­tial­ly took be­tween three and sev­en busi­ness days, has been ex­tend­ed to two weeks.

These ex­pe­dit­ed pass­ports can on­ly be picked up at the Port-of-Spain of­fice.

A stan­dard adult pass­port costs $500. The fee for a busi­ness pass­port is $700. Re­place­ment for a lost or mis­placed pass­port has a $2,000 price tag. Chil­dren un­der two years old and in­di­vid­u­als 60 years and old­er re­ceive free pass­ports.

Last De­cem­ber, the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty dou­bled the fees for pass­port ser­vices pro­vid­ed by the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion.

No ex­pla­na­tion for de­lays

Man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Home­Grown TT, Kevin Ram­se­wak, spoke of his hor­ror in try­ing to get a pass­port ap­point­ment in the last six months.

Last De­cem­ber, his pass­port ex­pired.

Ram­se­wak said he tried nu­mer­ous times on­line to book an ap­point­ment but was un­suc­cess­ful.

“That was kind of dis­heart­en­ing on the on­line plat­form. I find it ridicu­lous for some­thing so ba­sic,” the busi­ness­man said.

He felt that in this day and age, peo­ple with­out an ap­point­ment should not line up to get a pass­port.

“There must be a way to han­dle the back­log.”

Ram­se­wak said if a per­son has to wait six months for an ap­point­ment and an­oth­er three months to get their pass­port, that time frame is way too long.

“We went from a well-oiled ma­chine to hav­ing to wait 14 days for an ex­pe­dit­ed pass­port.”

Ram­se­wak said the al­le­ga­tions that im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials and em­ploy­ees have been col­lect­ing mon­ey for pass­port ap­point­ments should in no way be con­doned or en­cour­aged.

“How­ev­er, be­cause of the in­ef­fi­cien­cies in the sys­tem, it is caus­ing peo­ple to do that. The doors are be­ing opened for more of these things to hap­pen. If we don’t have checks and bal­ances in place, peo­ple are go­ing to take ad­van­tage of the sys­tem. Why wait for a pub­lic ser­vice like this to dis­in­te­grate?”

On Face­book, one per­son wrote, “First time I’m ap­ply­ing for my pass­port. I’ve been told the ear­li­est ap­point­ment is in No­vem­ber.”

An­oth­er wrote, “Imag­ine five weeks, and I can’t get the sta­tus of my pass­port. No calls an­swered, no re­spons­es to emails. Now this bac­cha­nal…who will re­im­burse my trips booked? Bring tick­ets and a let­ter. Why do I need to run around when you are out­side of the time­frame you post?”

An im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cer told Guardian Me­dia In­ves­ti­ga­tions Desk that busi­ness­es that pro­vide on­line ap­pli­ca­tion ser­vices se­cure a large por­tion of the pass­port ap­point­ments for their pay­ing clients.

“They clog the sys­tem at times.”

The of­fi­cer said there was al­so a man­pow­er short­age at the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion, and that some of­fi­cers have been col­lect­ing their over­time and al­lowances late.

“This has of­fi­cers dis­grun­tled.”

On Thurs­day, Guardian Me­dia In­ves­ti­ga­tions Desk emailed ques­tions to act­ing chief im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cer Ali­cia Acres-Yousee, but she did not re­spond.

A What­sApp mes­sage was al­so sent to Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der and Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas on the claims, but there was no re­sponse.

Next week, Pt II of our Spe­cial Re­port on pass­port de­lays.