Efficient passport office

Maltese citizens seem to highlight only the bad things at government departments where the public needs a service. I cannot say the same for the passport office, when I went there on a Wednesday at around 10 a.m. to renew my passport.

Is this not an efficient way of issuing a passport? Well done passport office- Joseph Mizzi, San Ġwann

When I arrived I went straight to the reception desk and the receptionist gave me a chit with a number and told me to sit down and wait until my number appeared on the screen. I only waited for 15 minutes and a courteous messenger led in another five applicants with me and he organised us in another queue.

He asked for my ID card and took a photocopy of it and guided me to the cubicle where the camera and the fingerprint equipment were being operated by a well-organised lady who knew her job very well.

It took me another five minutes to take the photos and fingerprints (being a biometric passport) and pay. She told me that I could pick up the new passport the following Monday morning. This means that the whole process to issue a passport takes only two working days. Is this not an efficient way of issuing a passport?

Well done passport office.