Australians face 60% longer wait for passports as border reopening spikes demand

Australians are waiting 60% longer than usual for their passport applications to be processed, as the reopening of the international border drives a huge jump in demand and a flood of calls to the passport office.

Australians have complained of long waits when phoning the passport office, or even having their calls disconnected, even as Dfat attempted to manage demand by hiring an extra 130 staff.

It is understood Dfat has recruited 130 additional new staff, as well as returning large numbers of passport staff who had been on temporary redeployment to other roles while passport demand was low.

This move is believed to have bolstered the number of staff currently undertaking passport-related work to more than 600, which is similar to pre-pandemic staffing levels.

More staff are expected to be recruited between now and 2023 amid expectations of further increases in international travel.

Early in the pandemic, Guardian Australia reported that the disruption to overseas travel had resulted in a massive drop in Australian passport applications, a decline of about 400,000 in the first half of 2020.

That also meant the government missed out on tens of millions of dollars in application fee revenue.

Over the past 12 months, it is estimated about 1.8 million Australians have either put off renewing their expired passports or applying for a passport for the first time. The latter category includes new Australian citizens.

But the surge in applications has been driven by the progressive reopening of the international border, which began when the government allowed fully vaccinated Australian citizens and permanent residents to freely travel abroad from 1 November.

It is understood this plan included sending out email and SMS messages to more than 2.2 million Australians over the past year to remind them that their passport has either expired or is about to expire.

The department has also been in touch with travel and tourism industry firms to enlist their help in urging customers to renew their passports early.