temuni wrote: ↑Mon Aug 09, 2021 2:05 pm
Good news to share with all!
I contacted the passport office today to ask about expediting my FBR application due to pregnancy, and I was told by the agent that the FBR office will be reopening fully sometime in September and to expect an exact date announcement on the FBR website on September 1st.
I hope this is true and we'll see what announcements they make, but this announcement and Simon Coveney's goal of getting back to a normal processing period seem unlikely to me.
Aug 4 Corkey the cat posted
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/p ... 19460.html
Passport backlog has increased from 89K to 119K,
If the plan is to clear the passport backlog for actual citizens before reopening the FBR, this looks like the situation is getting delayed more, not accelerated.
Simon Coveney gave some written answers on applications and approvals, which I have combined below. I just see the backlog continuing to grow unless he has an army of trained new processors (e.g. moved once the passport backlog stops growing).
Year Wait Beg Yr New Appl Approved Wait End Yr
2017 5,000
2018 5,000 25,000 -17,500 12,500
2019 12,500 32,000 -18,500 26,000
2020 26,000 16,000 -12,500 29,500
2021 29,500 3,500 -3,000 30,000 estimated from June/July
Up to 2016, approximately 6,000 applications per year, 6 months for typical processing.
I'm guessing there are also some 2021 applications not counted because supporting documents have not been submitted.
If they have never processed 20,000 applications per year, I don't see how they can catch up on 30,000 applications not processed during the covid closures in less than another year or two.
Simon Coveney was getting questions about the FBR backlog from other ministers, so I'm hoping they'll resume official processing and maybe add more people before the end of October.
