Not just visas to the US: If you need to renew your passport, you should be patient - a lot of patience.
Citizens who have contacted the various bureaus around the country have found that there are no available appointments for the coming months.
Sometimes those who need a passport are forced to travel to distant cities, in case there is a queue.
If you are lucky and have a close turn to issue a passport, it is not certain that you can start celebrating.
The Ministry of the Interior promises that the passports will be ready in about six weeks - too long - but many did not receive them even after the period.
In other words, you should take a longer time interval to be sure the passport will be ready on time.
In order to try and meet the high demands for passport renewal, the Population Authority has opened a new bureau in Bnei Brak, the entire purpose of which is to issue temporary passports that are valid for two years.
But with the opening of the bureau, thousands of queues were hijacked within two days.
With the opening of the queues for June, about 20,000 queues were hijacked as well, and now many of the customers have to wait until next month for the issuance of a temporary passport.
Although the passports are valid for two years (as opposed to ten years, as in the regular passport), the move by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked at least saves the recipients of temporary passports the need to pay for the permanent passport after the two years.
In the new bureau, the cost of a temporary passport is NIS 400 for an adult and NIS 195 for a minor.
If you want to issue a temporary passport at Ben Gurion Airport, the price will be double.
If your passport is valid until the next few months, it is recommended to book appointments now for November, so prices fall by about 50% to winter rates.
Meaning: Savings of thousands of shekels per family.
By the way, it is never worth losing your passport abroad, and now - sevenfold. Disagreement between Foreign Ministry employees and the Ministry of Finance leads to the impossibility of issuing new passports in many countries around the world including the US, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Belarus, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Australia, Sweden, South Africa and Chile.
This means that an Israeli who has lost a passport in one of these countries will be able to ask the embassy staff to issue him a transit visa, which in most cases will suffice, but there are situations in which flying with the visa in question can be cumbersome.
The Interior Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
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