At the approach of summer holidays , travelers whose identity card or passport has expired should have a better chance of receiving their new documents on time. While the current average time for obtaining an appointment to redo identity papers is “65 days in France”, against “a little less than 12 days a year ago”, according to Gabriel Attal, the executive announces an “emergency plan” to “improve delivery times”, detailed this Wednesday the government spokesperson, at the exit of the Council of Ministers.
The deadlines have been extended due to an “unprecedented increase in requests, linked to the catch-up of the Covid period “, explained Gabriel Attal. The objective is to “return to a normal situation in the summer”, tweeted the day before, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, responsible for this emergency plan. This will be accompanied by an exceptional envelope of 10 million euros, specifies the Elysée.
“50,000 additional requests per week”
“The main challenge is to increase the number of appointments,” explained Gabriel Attal. To do this, “400 new devices for collecting title applications can be installed within a month” assured the spokesperson. Enough to allow “nearly 50,000 additional requests” collected each week. In the prefecture, “160 new agents” have been recruited since January 2022, i.e. a 30% increase in the workforce, for this mission.
Professional requests will also be “prioritized”, in particular thanks to the online pre-request. Identity cards and passports “expired for less than five years” will finally be “valid for the May and June exams” as well as “for registration for driving licenses in driving schools”, specified the spokesperson.
In 2020 and early 2021, one million national identity cards (CNI) would not have been renewed in France compared to normal, the demand for passports falling by 38% and that for identity cards by 18%, according to data from the National Agency for Secure Documents (ANTS). In Paris, nearly 100,000 fewer files were registered in 2020 compared to 2018 or 2019.
Avec AFP