Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 18, 2016 Letters
Dear Editor,
I visited the Passport Office at Georgetown a few days ago which was not a very pleasant experience. My first observation was the tons of people waiting in long tedious, stagnant lines for hours. I observed an immigration officer will first examine your documents then you go to pay your fees then you make a line by standing then from standing line to a sitting chair line that looks like a ‘’merry go around for hours’’.
The next line I saw was the line to uplift your passport by handing in your slip. Then it’s a next long wait to hear your name called over a microphone. This is what bothers me most was the loud music from the Police Steel band playing from the next door building that hinders people to hear their names called when it is called. The police are the ones who should set the examples but it seems they care less that our hard working citizens have to stand over 6 hours in a line for a basic passport.
What infuriates me is the way this system works though I saw lots of Inspectors at the immigration office not one of them had the guts to go stop the police band that was and still is a noise nuisance obstructing hard working citizens to hear their names called to uplift their passports. Those who make the laws break the laws it’s no wonder or crime rate goes up every day.
Then the touts who sell passport holders walking on the steps, dragging people to buy and creating lots of noise; some even offering to get the passport easier to impudent people at a price. Then the taxi men who rush people into the immigration compound and nothing is done to remove these public nuisances from the immigration compound.
It’s noise all the way and no disciple, security or law and order. I haven’t seen one armed police officer or soldier there with a proper gun. The security system there is completely zero.
My other concerns are the long wait by people who travel as far as Berbice to make an application. They have to wait the whole day; same goes for people coming from Linden, Lethem, Essequibo etc.
There are no priority lines for these people also those who are very old. I also learn that people from Berbice and other Regions can apply for their passports at Central Immigration in Georgetown but request that they send their passports to their Regions. It’s doesn’t make a lot of sense to me for a Berbician to travel to Georgetown to make an application for his/her passport to be sent to New Amsterdam upon request.
Why not decentralize this entire passport application system for every region to have their own passport office thus ease the travel expenses and burdens on our poor citizens. Since I was a boy living in Berbice I used to apply and uplift my passport at New Amsterdam. Now in this age of advanced technology the entire system gets worst daily. It’s lines, lines, lines, and rejection if papers are not filled right.
This new machine readable passport is very thin and very inferior; I still wonder why is it the passport holder profession is not written in this passport that is a vital piece of information. It was in the old passport why they leave out a citizen’s profession/occupation from this new passport is still mind boggling to me. But that requirement is in the passport application form. So I can say a requirement from their application is not in their finished passport. Can someone please educate me from the immigration what is it that a citizen profession is not written in the machine readable passport?
My next inquiry is why a woman who has been married recently will have to do a new application for a new passport to have her husband name in her passport?
She has a new passport just 6 months old but because she is married she has to do a new application for a new passport that requires a next $4000 application fees, travel and other expenses.
In my opinion once she produces her married certificate, husband birth certificate, and her birth certificate the immigration now has the authority to write under observations that the bearer is now married they can insert her married certificate number if they wish in her passport and put their legal stamp on that page in her passport to authenticate their facts. Why this simple procedure requires a new passport application?
It’s more than ridiculous in this age of modern technology we have to spend a whole day for a simple passport after 49 years of Independence we are a nation that is left behind when it comes to proper administration and management for very basic things. It’s my sincere hope in 2016 that this new administration obliterate these long lines I see in every office and implement a more efficient system at the Central Immigration in Georgetown.
Rev. Gideon Cecil
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
Mar 28, 2024
Minister Ramson challenge athletes to better last year’s performance By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – Guyana’s 23-member contingent for the CARIFTA Games in Grenada is set to depart the...B.V. Police Station Kaieteur News – The Beterverwagting Police Station, East Coast Demerara (ECD) will be reconstructed... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – In the face of escalating global environmental challenges, water scarcity and... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]