Following the advice given regarding the new e-ID cards for foreigners, I decided to download the relevant forms from the government site.

As instructed, I also sent an e-mail, on January 29, requesting an appointment. To date (February 11), I have had no reply to my request. Indeed, I got an e-mail ‘delivery receipt’ on January 29 but I have not as yet received a ‘read receipt’.

On February 11, I resent the e-mail three times, only for them to be returned on each occasion with the message ‘mailbox full’. I have tried ringing the department to see what is happening about getting an appointment or even a reply to my e-mail but this has been to no avail as the phone just continues to ring out.

So what course of action do I take now? The advice so far has been not to go to the office to get an appointment and to apply online. It appears, from reading other letters, that staff is probably snowed under.

What will happen to the end-of-March deadline with regard to the expiration of our old ID cards when it clearly appears that it might take longer than that to obtain an appointment?

Wouldn’t it shorten the workload if current holders of ID cards and residency documents only had to fill out form ID 1A (application for e-ID residency cards for Maltese) and not have to reapply for the residency documents again as if they had just arrived here? Should my wife and I add to the congestion at the department by turning up there to ask for an appointment?

So the saga continues.