Foreign Affairs Minister Darren Henfield yesterday said nearly 2,000 e-passports are ready for collection by members of the public at the Anatol Rodger's gymnasium which is temporarily serving as New Providence's Passport Office Issuance Center.
During a tour of the center yesterday morning, Henfield said, "During July through August, 2016, 3,664 e-passports were successfully issued for the referred period to the Bahamian populace.
"Similarly, during the year 2017, it was discovered that in spite of every effort by passport staff to prompt recent e-passport applicants to retrieve their ready documents from our Thompson Boulevard/University Boulevard location, an excess of 3,269 ready e-passports remained at the Passport Office in New Providence awaiting collection by members of the public.
"Keeping in mind that the summer of 2017 is once again upon us and after exhausting every effort to encourage persons to collect their ready documents, the government decided to once again initiate the Anatol Rodger's gymnasium issuance centre on 3rd July, 2017 for the sole purpose of issuing new e-passports to our citizens, in an environment conducive to and spacious for that purpose.
"To date, we have successfully issued 1,516 e-passports since opening our doors over the past two weeks.
"We anticipate operating at this location throughout the month of July and quite possibly into August, 2017.
"This decision will be based on customer/citizen response. The public will be informed accordingly."
Officials at the department said they have alerted the public that their passports are ready via the media.
Pickup dates are also on customers' receipts.
The minister said his ministry is considering electronic updates via the Internet in the future.

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