The police now offer a kind of selective booking to remedy the long waiting times to renew the passport. Those who completely lack travel documents simply get priority in the queue.
– If you have an expired document, you end up in a special queue where you see the newly released times before everyone else, says Engström.
A few weeks ago, the police introduced a bank ID requirement to be able to book a passport time, which makes the new selective system possible. And the system is already rolling.
Shortened waiting time
The average for waiting times is now zero to ten weeks, says Engström. It is a big improvement from earlier this spring when you could have to wait for your passport for up to thirty weeks.
– Unfortunately, we have some police regions that reduce the value. But in the big cities – Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö – there are times available. Times are being released all the time now.
In the police regions Bergslagen and Öst, the waiting times are still long. But a recruitment of staff is underway, Engström emphasizes.
– We have previously redistributed staff in the short term to help the situation. Now we will hire staff who will continue to work with the passports.
Engström says that the police will continue to offer even more times within the next few weeks. The police will not keep the holiday closed, he says.
Is behind in passport production
As the influx of those who renew their passports is large right now, the supplier will lag behind in passport production this summer.
– On the other hand, there are no problems with ID cards in Europe. If you only get one time, the delivery times are short.
Police passport problems have also caused long telephone queues. Worried passport customers mean that it can take hours to reach the police by phone. But the police do not even have access to the system that shows exactly where a passport is located.
– We will try to remedy the telephone queues by creating another call center that only takes care of passport issues in the future.