Identity cards, passports… Why the deadlines for obtaining them are exploding

• Two, three, four months... The time taken to make an appointment to renew his passport or his identity card explodes.

• In question, the Covid-19 epidemic, but also the resumption of international travel and the craze for the new identity card.

• According to the National Agency for Secure Documents (ANTS), between 2020 and 2021, applications for passports fell by 39% and those for identity cards by 18%, the catch-up of which is currently being reflected in town halls.

The two years of the coronavirus epidemic will have left their mark in many areas.

If we think first of the economy, tourism or health, the French administration has also been greatly disrupted.

One example among others: for nearly a year, requests for renewal of passports and identity cards have exploded, leading to a marked extension of the traditional period.

For Ghislain, whose passport expired at the start of the 2021 school year, eight months will be necessary to recover the precious sesame: "I had an appointment more than three and a half months after my first request to the town hall of Vincennes but , due to a missing document, they couldn't get it to me.

In the meantime, I moved to Annecy.

So I started the procedure again from scratch, and now I'm told I'll have to wait more than five months to get an appointment," explains the 30-year-old, who twice had to cancel a stay in the United Kingdom, where the identity card is no longer accepted since Brexit.

A traditional peak

For Anne-Gaëlle Baudouin

the director of the National Agency for Secure Documents (ANTS), the body attached to the Ministry of the Interior which issues identity documents, the case of Ghislain is quite exceptional.

But it recognizes an extension of the deadlines in recent months.

Currently, "it takes an average of 27 days to obtain an appointment at the town hall - compared to 11.5 days in March 2021 - then 25 days between the request and the recovery of the identity card, 23 for a passport", she explains to

, specifying that these deadlines vary according to the territories: “It is often longer in urban and peri-urban territories.

»

“Every year, we have a peak in requests in March, continues Anne-Gaëlle Baudouin.

People anticipate vacations and exams that require valid ID.

It is traditionally a period of high activity.

And this year, we must add the resumption of travel – the United States, for example, only reopened its borders last November.

After two years of restrictions and border closures, the French want to escape: "With these two factors compiled, the requests have exploded", adds the director of the ANTS.

The crisis pointed out

And the main culprit is the Covid-19.

"In the town halls, there were agents absent, because they had contracted the coronavirus, others who had to keep their children at home, and a restrictive health protocol which slowed down the pace", justifies Anne-Gaëlle Baudouin.

On the other hand, many French people have delayed the renewal of their identity documents, “either because of the confinement, or because they did not know that the town halls remained open throughout this period”, adds- she.

“Because of the coronavirus epidemic and confinement, we have seen a collapse in demand for documents, with 39% fewer requests for passports and 18% for identity cards.

“And the catch-up, we observe it now, hence the current traffic jam.

»

We can point to the health crisis, but other factors come into play, and in particular the extension of the validity period of the identity card, which went from ten to fifteen years in 2014: "For some people, the end of this postponement is coming now, for others, they are anticipating, ”analyzes Anne-Gaëlle Baudouin.

And then there is the new identity card, available since August 2021, visibly acclaimed by the French: “There is an effect of attractiveness, of enthusiasm.

It is more practical, more aesthetic, more secure, some wish to have it now,” she continues.

The latter will not be compulsory until 2031, but it is possible to request it earlier in the event of loss or theft of the current card, or if you move house.

The return to normal will be long overdue

The traffic jam is such that the deputy Jean-Luc Warsmann (UDI and Independents), directly challenged the government in a written question published in mid-March.

The elected official calls for "a plan to upgrade and catch up with the delay".

"We must take stock of the entire territory and create a kind of national indicator which would make it possible to identify where it gets stuck, and how we catch up with it", explains the elected official of the Ardennes to

.

Without waiting, some cities have taken matters into their own hands.

This is the case of Paris, which has spread the meeting schedule over ten weeks, instead of six previously, indicates the town hall at

.

Additional hotlines have been set up, one Saturday per month, to free up “10,000 additional slots by the start of summer”, adds the town hall.

For its part, the Ministry of the Interior has strengthened the collection devices, that is to say the computers on which applications for identity cards and passports are recorded, with a hundred more in 2021.

For those who couldn't wait, Anne-Gaëlle Baudouin first advises making a pre-request on the ANTS website: "It allows town halls to go faster, so it frees up time, it's a win -winner.

And if you are in a hurry, it is always possible to file an application in a municipality other than yours, where the delays would be shorter.

Because the return to normal is not planned for immediately, according to the ANTS: “Honesty obliges me to say that we will remain on a high demand at least until the summer.

The catch-up effect is significant: there are a million identity cards which were not issued in 2021 on what was planned”, recognizes Anne-Gaëlle Baudouin.

Nantes

“I had to postpone my trip”… In Nantes, it takes more than four months to obtain identity documents

Society

New identity card: The French Academy wants to take legal action to remove the mentions in English

• Covid-19

• Town hall

• Administration

• Coronavirus

• Society

• Identity

• 0 comment

• 0 share

  • Share on Messenger

  • Share on Facebook

  • Share on Twitter

  • Share on Flipboard

  • Share on Pinterest

  • Share on Linkedin

  • Send by Mail

• To safeguard

• A fault ?

• To print