Population Authority to open new office in bid to ease passport appointment shortage
Interior Ministry body hopes to provide hundreds more meetings a day to solve issue, as networks of hackers and bots scoop up time slots, sell them for steep prices online
The Interior Ministry’s Population Immigration and Border Authority (PIBA) on Wednesday announced it will open a dedicated office in central Israel to handle passport applications, amid a severe shortage of appointments.
For at least a year, various networks of hackers and bots have captured thousands of appointments in the government’s online system and sold them for prices that can reach hundreds of dollars, causing the lack of availabilities at PIBA offices.
Many despairing citizens who want to go abroad are being forced to pay up to $250 per appointment to individuals selling them on the Telegram messaging app. Other bot networks promise applicants to quickly find a free slot for a reduced price of NIS 130 ($35).
PIBA vowed on Wednesday to offer hundreds of time slots a day when the new office opens, “in the hopes of reducing the waiting time for an appointment.”
The other option available is to pay a higher fee of NIS 430 ($117) for a temporary passport — valid for two years — which doesn’t require an appointment. The regular fee is up to NIS 280 ($76). A third option available for those with tickets to fly immediately exists at Ben Gurion Airport, where an office provides emergency passports for NIS 845 ($230).
The issue has its roots in the COVID-19 pandemic, during which international travel was severely curtailed and lockdowns limited both the government’s ability to issue new passports and the public’s will to make such appointments.
This created a backlog of an estimated one million passports that need renewal, quickly leading to all available appointments being swamped last year when pandemic restrictions were removed.
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that many applicants must show up in person to be issued their first biometric passport, which includes taking their fingerprints.
PIBA has repeatedly promised an imminent solution to the problem and has said it would add more appointments and manpower, but all its efforts have proven fruitless thus far.
Michael Bachner contributed to this report.
