The number of passport renewals has been seemingly innumerable due to the increased number of applications following the reopening of borders.
Officers from the Immigrations and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) have been working around the clock in a bid to hasten the processing of passports.
The operations have been so extreme that some officers have been called back on their off days to help out, and applications for their block leaves have been reportedly rejected.
Minister of Home Affairs, K Shanmugam, spoke in Parliament replying to MP Dennis Tan on the ICA’s efforts to speed up the passport applications processing time, saying that there is a limit to how sustainable this is.
Shanmugam said that ICA has re-deployed officers from other work units to process the passports on a 24/7 basis to deal with the surge in passport applications.
A video was also posted by ICA on their Facebook page on 29 June, showing their officers working extended hours.
Since April, there have been more than 500,000 passport applications, with an average of about 6,000 per day.
Shanmugam said that many of those who submitted applications had passports that were expiring of had already expired.
Some of them have also made travel plans and are anxious to get their passports and visited the ICA building physically to request their applications be expedited, which resulted in long queues and waiting times.
He also added that the public is being constantly updated on the expected processing time since early April, with the processing time taking an average of 6 weeks, as the demand continues to increase.