Production overloaded - Passport deliveries are delayed in Rhineland-Palatinate
The delivery of passports is currently significantly delayed in Rhineland-Palatinate. This is according to a survey by the German Press Agency among the five largest cities in the state and individual municipalities. "Normally it takes four weeks, currently around eight weeks," said a spokesperson for the city of Mainz.
Twice as long processing times
In Ludwigshafen, the processing currently takes up to nine weeks. Normally it would be three to four weeks, said a spokesperson. In Kaiserslautern, one can usually expect a wait of two to three weeks, but currently up to nine weeks.
In Koblenz, it takes approximately three to six weeks, depending on the season, but currently eight weeks or longer, according to a spokesperson. According to the Federal Printing Office, application numbers in this year have been exceptionally high. Even the regular high application numbers before the summer months have been surpassed.
Additionally, more passports are being ordered due to the abolition of children's passports as of January 1, 2024, meaning that children under twelve now have to apply for their own passports. A spokesperson for the city of Mainz commented on this.
In the Verbandsgemeinde Bernkastel-Kues, it takes approximately seven to eight weeks for new passports to arrive, which is about double the usual time. Similarly, in the Verbandsgemeinde Montabaur, with approximately eight weeks instead of the usual three to four weeks.
Problems at the Federal Printing Office
According to the Federal Printing Office, the demand for passports since the beginning of the year has been higher than ever before. Orders exceed the capabilities of the production machines. "Since the beginning of the year, there have been unexpected, regular new records in daily order intake from the pass offices; in the entire month of April, a record number of over 700,000 passports were ordered," it was stated in a communication.
If application numbers were to sink in the fall, as they often do after the summer holidays, faster production times could be expected again. At the beginning of the coming year, additional machines are to increase production capacity.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, citizens can still pick up passports at express counters in the authorities within three days for an additional fee of 32 Euro on top of the standard fee of 70 Euro for adults over 24 years. Citizens can also be issued a provisional passport for travel to most countries to avoid having to postpone their trips.
- Despite the delivery delays in Rhineland-Palatinate, the city of Mainz is still processing passport applications, with a significant increase in processing time from four weeks to around eight weeks.
- The situation in Ludwigshafen is similar, with a processing time of up to nine weeks, twice the usual duration of three to four weeks.
- The city of Kaiserslautern, known for a two to three-week wait for passport delivery, is currently experiencing delays of up to nine weeks due to the high demand.
- The spokesperson for Koblenz revealed that while it usually takes three to six weeks for a passport to be delivered, depending on the season, the current wait time is eight weeks or longer.
- The high application numbers in Rhineland-Palatinate this year, exceeding even pre-summer highs, have been attributed to the Federal Printing Office, which is struggling to keep up with demand due to technical issues with their production machines.
- In light of these challenges, the authorities in Kaiserslautern and several other districts, such as Verbandsgemeinde Bernkastel-Kues and Verbandsgemeinde Montabaur, have seen their passport delivery times double, with wait times of seven to eight weeks instead of the usual three to four weeks.
