How We Grabbed Passport

Nowadays in Sri Lanka, everyone tries to leave the country, and at least everyone has a dream of doing so. Consequently, the number of passports issued per day has also increased. With the idea of leaving the country for some time, we also wanted to obtain our passports.

Actually, we were not in a hurry, so we applied online in September 2023. During those days, the online passport system was very active, and people actually received their passports by mail.

So, we also thought we could receive ours without much effort. First, we had photos, copies of birth certificates, education certificates, employer certificates, and all necessary documents and applied online. We received an immediate date to place our fingerprints, and we completed up to that stage.

We waited for months and months until the status changed to the next step, but it never happened. After doing some research, we noticed that we could visit the immigration office and collect our passports.

We followed the instructions and went directly to the second floor. There was no long queue for online applicants, and we were taken in. It was about 8:30 a.m. when we reached there. We had to sit and wait until the office process started.

There, they verified our payments and document submissions. This process didn't take much time, and once done, we were asked to go to the first floor and wait for the printed passport.

Passports were supposed to be received after 12 noon, so we did some shopping during the time in between.

We were back by 11:00 a.m., and when it came to 11:30 a.m., they started to distribute the passports. Before 12 p.m., the whole process was completed.

Even though they failed to deliver the passports to our doorstep, applying online still had some benefits in terms of time and effort.