The office is part of the Provincial Hall complex, which has been closed since November 27 last year when it was “occupied” by 2,000 protesters.
Today there was disappointment for some as the office announced that it can handle only 120 applications a day, opening from 8 am to 3:30 pm so that staff can process applications and be out by 5 pm, the deadline agreed with the PDRC.
Siriporn Tantipanyathep, chief of the Passport Office, said, however, “Passports will be ready in six or seven days from initial application, which is different from before, when it took a month.
“We will open every day from now on provided there is no problem [with the protesters].
“Some people came today as early as 5 am. We apologise to those who came but were unable to file their applications. We want to serve you all but we can’t.
“We would ask those who do not need immediate service to wait for a while so that we can deal with those who need their passports urgently.”