Faced with the lengthening of the deadlines for issuing identity documents, the ANTS is launching a search engine to speed up the process of obtaining passports and identity cards. A practical tool, but that does not solve the problem…
Taking care of the administration is far from being a piece of cake, especially when it comes to renewing an identity card or a passport! Many users go about it at the last minute only to find themselves stuck when it’s time to go on a trip. In fact, the deadlines for issuing official papers were greatly lengthened in 2022, following the reopening of national borders after the global Covid-19 pandemic – remember that it is however necessary to reduce your air travel as much as possible to try to limit the extent of the climate crisis. The French rush to their town hall to redo their passports or their identity cards in order to make up for the time they have lost, stuck in the territory for two long years. More than 7 million citizens filed an application in 2022, which overloaded the competent services. Knowing that it now takes about fifty days of waiting to obtain an appointment, then thirty days to produce the document, it is therefore necessary to go about it at least two and a half months in advance – and that is when there is no administrative problem! To try to limit expectations and damage, the State has just set up CNI-passport, search engine in order to streamline requests. At the same time, the government has also announced a new aid of 20 million euros, which will be used to hire agents and provide town halls with new fingerprint devices, necessary to process requests.
CNI-passport: a search engine to renew identity card and passport more easily
Faced with the influx of requests for renewal of identity cards and passports and the lengthening of the deadlines for obtaining an appointment for several months, the National Agency for Secured Documents (ANTS) has set up a search engine to make it easier to make an appointment at the town hall. It allows you to visualize, for the next three months, those that are available in a geographical area ranging from 20 to 60 kilometers. As a reminder, the place of the request does not depend on the residence, it is simply necessary that the town hall is equipped with a recording station. For the moment, the new ANTS tool does not reference them all yet, but this should be corrected soon. To find an appointment, you must proceed as follows:
► With your usual web browser, go to CNI-passportthe new ANTS search engine.
► Fill in the various fields, indicating the start and end dates of the search, the maximum distance (20, 40 or 60 kilometres), the reason for the appointment (renewal of identity card or passport), the number of people making the request, and finally your address.
► Click the blue button To research.
► Wait a few seconds. A list with the different available appointments is displayed, indicating the possible cities and days, the distance in kilometers from your accommodation, and finally the different times. Click the blue button To book in front of the niche that interests you. If no appointment is available in the next three months for the city entered, the online service will let you know, and you will have to enter a new municipality.
► A pop-up window indicating that you will be redirected to the site of the town hall concerned appears. Click the blue button Continue to complete the search and schedule an appointment with the facility.
This new service is a welcome addition since it avoids having to contact town halls one by one to find an appointment. On the other hand, it does not solve the problem of delays, which are still just as long. This is why it is important to carefully monitor the expiry date of identity documents and to do not wait until the last moment to renew them. To simplify the process of obtaining the precious official paper, it is recommended to carry out an online pre-application. It will then suffice to go to the town hall to finalize the file during a faster and more efficient meeting.