XN000022-1973-07-13 — Page 7

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Friday, July 13, 1973

LONGER TIME TO PROCESS APPLICATIONS FOR BRITISH PASSPORTS

The Immigration Department announced today that due to the very

heavy increase in the number of applications for British passports, the

minimum period required for processing is now 14 working days about three

weeks.

The norami period is usually 10 working days (around two weeks).

The Director of Immigration, Mr. W.E. Collard, said that since the

beginning of this financial year up until now more than 15,300 passports had

been issued.

This is about 4,500 more than in the same period in 1972.

In June alone, almost 5,500 passports were issued, compared with

about 3,700 in June last year; and for the first two weeks of this month

the figure was over 2,000.

Mr. Collard said that people intending to travel should take into

account the longer time needed to process the applications when planning

their arrangements.

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He explained that the big increase in applications was mainly due to

a substantial rise in the number of people travelling abroad since the

introduction of package tours.

The Director also reminded people that they need not go to Immigration

Department headquarters to apply for passports the applications could be

lodged at any of the department's branch offices.

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