‘Unprecedented’ delays at Australian passport office prompt fears of cancelled travel plans

Australians planning an overseas trip are facing the possibility of cancelled or delayed travel plans as the Australian passport office buckles under post-Covid-restrictions demand.

The "unprecedented" passport processing delays have resulted in people queueing for hours at passport offices and people spending hours calling to check for updates on their documents.

Last week, Jacob Atkins called the office 46 times over a six-day period.

"I got through three times,' Atkins said.

Needing a concurrent passport, which lasts for only three years, he was initially given the wrong advice.

"They were in a hurry to get me off the phone, which is why I got the wrong information which ended up backfiring, because I had to continue calling them," he said.

"I really feel sorry for them."

He was given new advice, to fill out a different form, before the office replied to his email from a week earlier, with a third form to fill out, which he wasn't told about on either of the phone calls.

"I don't want to judge the staff of the passport office. They must be under stress but it's obvious they need to be better resourced."

A spokesperson for the passport office said it was currently receiving between 10,000 to 12,000 applications a day, up from 7,000 to 9,000.

In the past financial year, the office has issued over 1.2m passports, which was double the total number of the previous year.

"The APO has issued over 950,000 of these passports since 1 November last year," the spokesperson said.

"Last month (May 2022), we received 260,000 applications, compared to 203,000, 193,000 and 139,000 applications in April, March and February 2022 respectively."

Some frustrated Australians, who cannot get through on phone, have taken to Twitter to message the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, under which APO sits, directly. They are given an email address, which has bounced back because it is full.

One Western Australian woman seeking a passport for her child rang after eight weeks to see where it was, only to find out it had been ready and sitting in the office for a month - they had not phoned her.

Others are being forced to visit their nearest office - sometimes hours away.

Tracie Jarvis and her husband, Glenn, should have spent the last few weeks focusing on their travels - Glen is an elite athlete and will be representing Australia in the 2022 World Triathlon Para Cup, in Besancon, France on 7 June.

Instead, Jarvis has been spending hours trying to get her passport, increasingly concerned she will miss watching her husband compete in his first international event since the pandemic started.

Jarvis has a disability, making it painful to sit or stand for long periods of time but after weeks, and multiple attempts to call and email the office, she decided to make the four-hour drive into Melbourne in the hope they might have her passport.

When she got to the office the queue stretched into the foyer. She explained to a staff member she was disabled and didn't have her walker.

"My case was escalated I was reassured I would receive my passport that day, but I needed to sit and wait," she said.

She was told a glitch in the system meant they had had trouble processing her passport - but at 7:30pm she finally had it in hand.

"It was a massive ordeal for me. I spent the night in Melbourne at my son's house. Because of my disability, I slept for 20 hours afterwards."

DFAT said it was currently dealing with the backlog, which is expected to take a month to process.

"We apologise to those customers who have been affected by these delays.

"We continue to onboard and train additional passport processing and call centre staff to meet the increased demand, as well as making further improvements to our telephony technology and business processes."

Meanwhile, 140,000 skilled visa applicants are now waiting for approval to enter the country.

Business Council of Australia chief executive, Jennifer Westacott, said the backlog in processing these visa applications was delaying a much-needed boost to the Australian workforce.

"We are building a strong pipeline of talent for Australia, but it can't deliver highly skilled workers overnight," she said.

"We need a migration system that moves quickly because investment decisions for big projects or expansions can't be put on hold indefinitely without Australians losing out on new jobs and new opportunities."

"Carefully targeted migration is critical to giving businesses rapid access to skills and workers so they can ramp up, expand, invest and create new jobs for Australians.

Comment has been sought from the Department of Home Affairs, which oversees the skilled migration visa system.