passport renewal experience

Last month my passport expired and I had to get it renewed. I had heard the horrible stories of how unorganized the process of passport renewal is. So I was very reluctant to go through that pain, but I couldn’t avoid it for too long. One fine day I decided to bite the bullet and get my passport renewed. The process I went through at Awami Markaz was exactly how I had thought. It was painfully slow, unmanaged, and stupid.

The entire drill can be devided into six steps.

1. Make payment
2. Get token
3. Fingerprinting
4. Picture
5. Data Entry
6. Verification

So, when I reached Awami Markaz, I found myself surrounded by the so called brokers who looked desparate to help me out and ease the pain to some extent. Someone had told me that the brokers do help people out and it’s ok to hire a broker. So I negotiated with one and he said he will make the payment on my behalf and get me a token. We agreed at Rs. 150. I gave him the processing fees and he advised me to wait outside Awami Markaz. I was almost convinced that he would flee with my money and I would never see him again. But he showed up after 10 minutes with the bank receipt. Then he made copies of my ID and expired passport and attached everything together. Then he told me to follow him and we went upstairs to the place where the actual show takes place. I saw a long line of people waiting to get inside. That’s where he said I was on my own and demanded Rs. 150 for helping me out. I realized all he did was make the payment, which is not something that I couldn’t have done myself. Anyway I gave him his money because it was no use arguing with him. However, I learnt the lesson of never to use those brokers for anything ever again. Seriously, unless you are too dumb to make a simple payment, you don’t need any help.

So I was in the line which was moving slowly. The guard was making sure everyone had made the payment before letting them in. Once inside, there was another line, marking the start of step 2, Get yourself a token number. The clerk at the counter checked the required documents, ID card in my case, and handed me a paper with date and token number printed on it. My number was 313. I was wondering if that many people were already inside before me, and it was only 930 in the morning.

3rd phase was biometric counter, or fingerprinting, in simple terms. There were three counters, each had a digital display showing token numbers. When I got there, the current number was little above 200. It means there were 100 people waiting to be finger printed before me. There were plenty of seats, all occupied by women, children and senior citizens. I had to wait standing. So I did, for almost an hour when my number displayed on the screen and I was finger printed. The process for which I waited entire hour took hardly a minute.

The picture counter was not much different from the biometric. There were four counters, each with a digital camera mounted on a tripod, and similar digital numeric displays. They were working relatively faster and my turn came in less than half an hour. I was made sit on a stool and my snapshots were taken. Getting my picture taken is the hardest thing for me. I can never smile no matter how hard I try, and I have a natural tendency of looking away from the lens. After three attempts the clerk was able to shoot a picture of mine worthy enough to be included in my passport.

Next up was data entry phase. There were 14 counters dedicated for this. When my turn came I was seated in front of a display and asked several questions like address and job nature and whether or not I had 10 fingers in my hands. I was given a printed paper with all my information on it, which I had to take to the next counter.

I don’t remember whatever they called it, and I don’t understand the significance of it. All he did was took that printout and told me to collect my passport after 12 days. And I waited two hours for that. These people were the slowest of all. When biometrics had reached token number 600, they will still in the 200. That means there were at least 400 people inside the hall. Now imagine the heat and suffocation.

I came out of Awami Markaz at 1 pm. I got there at 9 am. It took me 4 hours to get my passport processed.

Here is my take on the process. I think this entire procedure of passport issuance is nothing but stupid. Whoever came up with this process is the dumbest person on earth. On top of that, there is only one place in entire Karachi for passport processing. Imagine that. One place for a city of over 10 million people. There should be at least 5 such centers so that people could go to their nearest center.

If they had used a little common sense, they could have made this process short, easy and fast by combining all those 6 steps in one step. Why can’t payment, fingerprinting, picture, data entry and verification be done at one counter? If there were only 10 counters performing all the steps, it would have been much faster. If you combine the actual time it takes for each step, it sums to 15 minutes (2 minutes for payment, 2 minutes for finger printing, 5 minutes for photograph, 5 minutes for data entry and verfication, 1 minute for those who are too slow for no reason). That’s how long it actually takes to process a passport. So if you combine all the steps at a single counter, not only people will be done quickly, but it will also speed up the process and more people will be served in a shorter time. Making people wait four hours for a 15 minute thing is plain torture. It still amazes me how someone could come up with such a stupid way of doing things. Finally, the passports should be sent by mail. I don’t mind paying a few hundred rupees extra to have my passport mailed to me. The thought of waiting again in another line to get my passport sends a shiver down my spine.