One of the biggest failures of the Population and Immigration Authority is the process of issuing passports.
Almost every Israeli who wishes to issue a passport encounters a great many difficulties - queues for another six months, high payments at the National Bank of Israel or the necessity to issue a temporary passport valid for only two years, which forces one to pay double for the "pleasure".
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This is the news you've been waiting for
• Did you also wait a long time for your passport?
You may be entitled to financial compensation
Outgoing Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked announced in the past that those who issue a temporary passport will be able to receive a refund when they come to issue the regular passport - but in practice this is not the case.
In a conversation that "Israel Today" had with Israelis who were issued temporary passports, they said that even when they managed to get an appointment to issue a regular passport, they were asked to pay again.
Even the employees of the Population and Immigration Authority were not instructed to act in this way, so the citizens pay double.
At first, the Authority's explanations were based on the Corona epidemic, but now it is no longer possible to rely on this reason, and there they are trying to find temporary solutions that do not really succeed in solving the problem for the citizens of Israel.
months of waiting.
Israeli passports (illustration), photo: Dodo Greenspan
An Israeli woman who is trying to get an appointment to issue a passport told "Israel Today": "I renewed my passport and they said we would get a refund for the regular passport, but now they are not willing to refund my payment - so I have to pay double. Not to mention that the appointment is for another six months, which means that I I have to issue another temporary passport in more than 300 shekels, and then pay again for the regular passport. It's just ridiculous what we'll be doing here."
At the same time, there are Telegram groups where queues for issuing passports are sold.
This is a phenomenon that has been going on for months, but so far has not been properly enforced.
Those who wish to issue a passport in Israel will pay more than NIS 800 for a temporary passport, while at the bureaus the amount is a little more than NIS 300 - even if these are temporary passports that are valid for only two years.
Queues for issuing passports (archive, those photographed have no relation to the news), photo: Yehoshua Yosef
It is important to remember that a temporary passport that is valid for two years allows you to actually fly with it only for about a year and a half, because many countries require that the passport be valid for about six months from the moment of entry into them.
As a reminder, yesterday it was published in "Israel Hayom" about new positions that have become vacant for another month at the PA's new bureau in the Binyamin headquarters, located a few kilometers from Jerusalem.
Thus, the queues for issuing passports have become very expensive, and there are those who are willing to travel tens or even hundreds of kilometers in order to get an appointment for a passport - if they manage to find queues at all, as these are taken up very quickly.
It may take a long time before you can issue one.
Israeli passport, photo: Rafael Ben Ari
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