If you need to renew your passport or apply for your first one but can’t seem to find the time because of work or the distance you live from the nearest Immigration and Nationality office, you can do so now. The Ministry of Immigration, through the Nationality and Passport Department, is offering convenient passport services in several areas throughout the country on the weekends. Those who successfully apply will receive their passport within two weeks of filling out their application forms. This week, residents of Spanish Lookout, Los Tambos, and Duck Run one, two, and three, were the first to benefit from these identity hubs, which are being conducted in partnership with the International Organization for Migration, headed by Diana Locke.
Diana Locke, Head, International Organization for Migration, Belize
“We approached immigration Ministry of Immigration, specifically the Department of Nationality and Passport, we approached social security and we floated the idea of Coming together and bringing the services to people in their community. They were both very excited about it. We reached out to labor because the labor department is also here and they’re sharing information with persons who are looking for jobs. You could come and talk to them and they could tell you what’s available in the area that they work. And so basically what we have here today is a partnership of all of these entities. We will be having the vital Statistics unit with us later on because that’s an identity service also. And so what we’re doing is providing this service to people who normally would not be able to access this During the week for whatever reasons they’re not able to get time off Elderly, you see a lot of elderly people here today who might have a difficulty traveling And we try to take the service to the community where they can do this We’ve we’re going to be having them across the country in each district There’ll be two in toledo because Bella Vista is a very large area that entire area So we’re going to do one in Bella Vista one in Toledo over two-day weekend. We’re going to do San Pedro, Belize City. Every district will be covered. We’ll be going there and providing this service to people who need it on the weekends.”
Dana Blades, Director, Nationality and Passports Department
“Do note that we’re only accepting these applications, no production is done on site. We come back in office and we do all the production for the documents. Actually, the service is exactly the same. The only difference is that we are going to the customers and they are not coming to us, but it’s exactly the same. I have noticed some persons have said that they find it a little bit easier and quicker when we are out in the fields as opposed to in the office. So the pickup location varies on the districts that we’re doing because do know that the service that we’re providing will be provided for the entire country. So if we provided the service in Orange Walk, then they will pick up back in Orange Walk and passports only taking 10 days. So within 10 days, those passports are delivered back to the respective stations. So we have done Orange Walk, we’ve done Spanish Lookout, Bengue, we’ve done one in Barranco, we were in Spanish Lookout.”
