Incorrect applications strain passport staff

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 26

Incorrect applications strain passport staff

PA Wellington Internal Affairs Department staff are straining to cope with more than 130,000 incorrect passport applications throughout New Zealand each year. A senior staff member said 80 per cent of passport applications were completed incorrectly. Auckland staff reject almost 1000 applications each week, says Auckland’s Internal Affairs assistant director, Mrs

Barbara Macken. The problem is putting staff under strain, and can add up to 10 days on the issuing time of each passport This year is likely to be the worst with a 25 per cent increase in people seeking passports, she says. Auckland issued just over 63,000 passports in the last financial year. Mrs Macken says about 50,000 of those would

have been queried, because of a problem with the application form. Basic errors, such as overlooking height or eye colour details are the most common, she says. “We are having to query about 80 per cent of all applications — it is t sad case.” The department was nF ways looking to improw the passport applicatios form, but “It was already pretty straightforward.”