Issuing passports back to normal from tomorrow: Immigration Dept.

Immigration and Emigration Department Spokesperson Deputy Controller Piyumi Bandara said although the routine operation commences tomorrow, the applicants should have to book an appointment before they seek services.

The public is therefore requested to make an appointment through the department’s website, http://www.immigration.gov.lk/ or contact through the hotline: 070 7101060 to make a reservation for the desired service. 

This measure has been taken to avoid congestion and unnecessary delays as the department’s daily capacity is to issue about 2, 000 passports. 

A backlog of several thousand passports were created within just two days as the Immigration Department was crippled with a system malfunction on May 4, which was expected to be back to normal within a couple of days, but failed. 

The department’s heavy duty computer servers suffered a malfunctioning and had encountered a problem in the system of printing the passports, as a result of issues pertaining to scanning new data. (Kuruku Koojana Kariyakarawana)