The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said that the waiting time for new passports to be processed should be reduced to about 1 week by the end of this year, as reported by The Straits Times.
It will be significantly shorter than the average 6-week waiting time that was estimated back in May earlier this year.
The ICA said that they are aiming for a one-week processing time after looking at the number of applications for passport renewals per day and how many they can process.
This comes in the wake of a surge in passport applications back in April when the international borders of most countries started opening IP.
ICA received more than 7,000 applications per day back in May 2022, much more than the 2,000+ applications they received daily prior to the pandemic.
ICA had also deployed 300 officers from other work units to the passport unit, and they can now produce about 6,500 passports per day, with the officers working around the clock.