THE Central Immigration Department on Camp Street, Georgetown where, over the years, spacing proved inadequate for members of the public seeking to conduct immigration business, is being extended.
On Friday last, an adjoining outer shed that was constructed as a temporary relief to alleviate overcrowding, was dismantled and yesterday the actual work commenced.

Deputy Chief Immigration Officer, George Vyphuis, when contacted yesterday, said the project is aimed at “improvement and better service to our people.”

He acknowledged that the exercise has resulted in some amount of inconvenience to both members of the public and immigration staff since the work now has to be conducted from two areas.

Vyphuis further explained that the processing of applicants which was previously conducted under the outer shed, has now being shifted temporarily into the Band Room compound.
And, on the satisfactory completion of that aspect, Immigration staffers then escort members of the public to the main office to complete the transaction.

As such, Vyphuis is appealing for cooperation from members of the public.

Persons are also urged to adhere to the date given for return to the office to uplift the travel document, as according to him, no expediting process is conducted by the office.

Since the launch of the machine readable passports in July 2007, Vyphuis said the office has distributed over 12, 000 of the documents.

When the new system was introduced on July 14, 2007, the timeframe for processing was 21 days and this has since been reduced to 14 days.

Reminding that the department is a people oriented service one, Vyphuis who prior to the commencement of construction works, personally interfaced with members of the public, pointed out that work at the office is reviewed on a daily basis in an effort to identify any bottlenecks with a view to having them solved in the shortest possible timeframe.

Vyphuis, meanwhile said, the office has no immediate plans to decentralize the issuing of passport because of the intricate processes involved in producing the new travel document.