This is to clarify many Papua New Guineans who seem to confuse themselves with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Immigration, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the PNG Immigration and Citizenship Services Authority regarding the functions of processing passports. The PNG Immigration & Citizenship Services Authority (PNGICSA) is the mandated authority responsible for processing ordinary passports and not the Department of Foreign Affairs. I realize many Papua New Guineans are not aware that the new Authority, PNGICSA is responsible for processing passports and not DFA. They still call into Department of Foreign Affairs inquiring to get their passports processed. Calls are being received everyday at DFA from people across the country inquiring about ordinary passport matters. Remember, PNGICSA is no longer part of Department of Foreign Affairs even though they report to the same Minister. Do not waste your effort calling the Department of Foreign Affairs to enquire on passport matters. By now you should remember this name; PNG Immigration & Citizenship Services Authority (PNGICSA) so next time you can call the right people to assist you and their main lines are: 323 1500/323 1503/323 1506. On that same note, I would like to propose a suggestion to PNGISCA management and the government to consider setting up regional passport processing offices in the main regional centres of Lae, Mt. Hagen and Kokopo. We cannot continue to have only one PNGICSA office at Waigani dealing with passport processing that has been a burden to the people residing outside of Port Moresby who would want to process their passports would have to travel into Waigani to have it done. That’s time consuming and waste of resources. PNGICSA collects a lot of money for the Government though processing of passports and citizenship or entry and work permit related matters so it would be in the best interest of the country for PNGICSA to open up regional offices to assist ordinary Papua New Guineans to easily obtain passports without traveling to Port Moresby. Something for the Chief Migration Officer (CMO) to consider.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 07:24:03 +0000
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