T

he newly-launched priority service for senior citizens and people with physical disabilities allows them to go directly to the immigration office without having to obtain a wait number, a process that many complain about as they often failed to get a number.

For the regular service, people can register at antrian.imigrasi.go.id, a system often plagued with problems, preventing residents from successfully registering.

However, due to limited human resources at the office, some priority applicants have faced delays in getting their passport applications processed.

One of the applicants, Sugiarto, 74, went to the West Jakarta Immigration Office on Thursday, two days after the service was introduced, after he read the news online about the immigration office’s newly-launched priority service.

However, he noticed that the office was still adjusting to the new special hours.

“The special service was supposed to start at 15.00, but we had to wait for a few minutes before it actually started,” he said.

He added that he and other priority applicants complained to the immigration officers about the service’s delay, and the officers assured them that they would have to wait no longer than 15 minutes.

Hendra, 41, came to the immigration office at 2:30 p.m. to accompany his in-laws, Stephanus Halim and Fui Jin, both over 80 years old, to extend their passports.

He said he expected that, after filling out the registration form and then completing the interview and photo session, his in-laws would get their passports delivered a week later, but they still needed to pick up the passports themselves.

However despite those shortcomings, he was still hopeful the service would continue and be improved.

According to the office head, Abdul Rahman, the elderly and the disabled could enjoy the walk-in service during the special service hours, but they were also welcome to come during regular hours, but would not be prioritized.

“We assist the elderly and the disabled from the moment they enter the office until they finish,” Abdul said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

He said the office provided a special booth for the elderly and the disabled to fill out the passport application form, and two separate booths for the interview and photo session.

The daily quota for passport applicants at the office is 240, with an additional quota of 20 for priority applicants every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.

Directorate General of Immigration spokesperson Agung Sampurno said they had actually been encouraging all immigration offices to set up a priority service for the elderly and the disabled since 2015.

However, not all of the offices managed to set up the priority service. “Each office is different, some have adequate resources while others may not,” he said, adding that in the capital only the West Jakarta office had set up the priority service.

The special service had come amid the surge in passport applicants because of cheaper travel costs, he said.

In 2017, the directorate received 3,093,000 passport applications, an increase from 3,032,000 in 2016 and 2,878,099 in 2015. It also recorded that 9.1 million Indonesians traveled abroad in 2017, a staggering jump from 8.4 million in 2016.

Agung said the increasing number of applicants had caused bottlenecks in several immigration offices because of limited equipment, such as passport printers and biometric record machines.

“So, we keep proposing to procure the equipment, while also adding the number of Passport Service Points [ULP],” Agung said.

The directorate is adding 10 more ULPs besides those already available at 125 immigration offices. “There are also 16 one-stop multiservice points [LTSP], three Immigration Work Units [UKK] and two Public Service Malls [MPP],” he previously said. (ami)