Home Affairs will, from 1 November, be delivering new passports to the doorsteps of South Africans.
Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schrieber launched a new service centre in Den Haag in the Netherlands, which will be offering the tailored service.
Unfortunately, South Africans living within the country’s borders will not have access to the service just yet.
SA passport delivery
The department aims to perfect the logistics overseas before rolling out the doorstep delivery of passports to South Africans in South Africa.
For those requiring passports abroad, the department’s international service centres are able to cut passport processing time from 18 months to five weeks.
Couriered doorstep delivery of passports will be available from Home Affairs’ 18 international service centres scattered around the globe.
As well as the reduced processing times, delivery times will range from 24 to 72 hours at fees ranging between UD$30 and U$60.
Of those 18 service centres, three are in Australia, three are in the United Kingdom and three others in continental Europe — one in the Netherlands and two in Germany.
The United States, United Arab Emirates, China and New Zealand have two locations each, with Canada rounding out the list.
Two sites are listed on the Home Affairs website as being in the planning phase and will bring the service to France and India.
‘Sandbox’ testing
Schrieber said the programme will greatly streamline matters for South Africans living abroad, reiterating that this phase allowed the department a “sandbox” testing environment.
“We are pushing forward relentlessly to eliminate the need for clients to travel large distances and stand in long queues to obtain enabling documents.
“Once we are comfortable that doorstep delivery is working smoothly and securely for the relatively small population of South Africans living abroad, we will scale up this reform,” the minister said.
Schrieber added that it was another “watershed” moment for the department, as it refined its operations.
“This latest step demonstrates that the tech-driven service delivery revolution underway at Home Affairs continues to gather momentum as we work to deliver dignity for all,” he concluded.
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