Passport wait times return to normal after system upgrade issues caused 10-week backlog

The Government says the waiting time for a passport has returned to normal after a system upgrade earlier in the year increased waits to more than two months.

In May, the Herald found the number of people using the urgent, more costly, process for a passport had surged from 17 per cent in 2023 to almost a third over a six-week period in April and May this year as people tried to beat the backlog.

About a tenth of those applicants initially applied for the “standard” service but paid to upgrade to “urgent” after concerns that they would not meet their travel deadlines.

On Friday, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden said the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) was now issuing 90% of passports within two weeks.

An upgrade to the passport processing software in March had caused unexpected delays, she said.

At its peak, people were waiting up to 10 weeks, much longer than the Government’s target of 10 days.

In April, almost 40,000 people were waiting for a passport. RNZ reported the system upgrade issues had prevented new applications from being made.

At the time, the DIA said the system update was the biggest change to the passport system in more than a decade.

When the backlog was at its peak, anxious travellers faced the prospect of either changing their travel plans or forking out hundreds of dollars for an urgent passport.

The DIA charges $215 for a standard adult passport and double that price – $430 – for urgent processing. Urgent passports are issued within three days.

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.