Long wait just to get a passport: – A hundred before me in the queue – VG

Less than 40 minutes ago

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The mother of two from Bærum was only to pick up the passport for her daughter Vilde (12) before the family boarded the plane to the Italian island of Sicily on 24 June.

– But here we are all in the same queue, whether we are applying for a passport or just picking up a passport. It is reprehensible to use other people’s working hours in this way, says Berg-Ingebrigtsen stated.

She first came to the police station in Greenland at 13.30 on Monday. By then, the button to line up for passport collection had been turned off for more than two hours.

– The man at the information desk said that the demand was so great that it was only to come again another day, the Bærum woman explains.

The next morning – Tuesday – she was back at 09.30.

– Then it was already a hundred before me in the queue, just to get a passport, says Berg-Ingebrigtsen.

The waiting time to get a passport is at least seven weeks. Time to order a passport or ID card is scarce. 100,000 Norwegians waiting to get a passport – and many of them fear that the summer holidays will end.

Suggests immediate action

On Tuesday, the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party, the Green Party, the Socialist People’s Party and the Red Party agreed to propose immediate measures to reduce the queues. The governing parties are in the minority when the Storting votes on the proposal on 2 June.

Extended opening hours in the evening and on weekends and increased staffing at the passport office with a large turnout are examples of measures that are proposed.

This has been the case in Oslo for a while.

But the problems are not automatically solved with longer opening hours and better staffing. At the end of March, the Police Directorate stated that Thales, which produces Norwegian passports, is unable to deliver goods as expected, due to lack of raw materials.

– Ask the Minister of Justice

More than a hundred people are sitting on Tuesday afternoon waiting in the large vestibule at the police station in Greenland in Oslo. Ten of the 16 counters are open.

Everyone has drawn queue tags, either for the hour booked, passport or ID card to be picked up or to get an emergency passport. The eyes are fixed on the information screens:

C151 for counter 2, C150 for counter 9, F017 for counter 12 …

A group of elected representatives from Oslo City Council get visitor tags affixed to their chests.

– What does the mayor think about the passport chaos?

– You can ask the Minister of Justice about that. She is the one doing it, Marianne Borgen (SV) answers gently.

The local politicians are going upstairs on the police station on another errand.

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Two hours notice

Anette Berg-Ingebrigtsen started already in January to try to get an appointment at the passport office.

– But there was nothing available, the hours disappeared immediately. Eventually I tried both in Sandvika and in Oslo, but the first vacancy was at the beginning of June, says the 49-year-old.

On May 6, she came across a cancellation the same day at the police station in Sandvika in Bærum.

– We received two hours notice. I took my kid out of school and went straight down to the passport office. That is why we are going on summer vacation, says Berg-Ingebrigtsen.

On police websites it states that applicants can choose between getting a passport or ID card in the mail or picking it up at the passport office.

– We were told that we had to pick up at the police station in Oslo, says Berg-Ingebrigtsen.

Should have selected the record

Anders Engebakken (50) also started looking for an appointment in January. He got time last Saturday. Preferably, he would both have national ID cards and renew the passports of both children.

The Oslo man was told by the police that they could not get both. Because the trip on July 2 goes to Spain, they chose ID cards that give travel rights within the EU and EEA countries.

– We were told that it could take up to seven weeks and were advised to pick up the ID cards at the police station, if we were in a hurry. And we had that, says the Oslo man.

The big surprise was when the SMS notification came that the cards were ready after ten days.

– It was of course nice. But that I have to wait here all day, I had not expected. I regret that I did not say that I could get the cards in the mail, says Engebakken.

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– Must work this weekend

After a four-hour wait, it is Anette Berg-Ingebrigtsen’s turn. After a few minutes in the cubicle, she comes out happy with her daughter’s brand new, pink passport.

– If I had known that it would take so long, I could have brought a PC and worked. It is completely meaningless that we who only have to pick up passports have to stand in line with everyone else.

Berg-Ingebrigtsen works with digital marketing in social media.

– Now I have to work this weekend to make up for lost time.

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