Venezuelans we do not seem to have many things in favor in the middle of the serious crisis that the country is going through. Those who try to emigrate, or simply want to have their passport, the document that by right belongs to us, we also suffer fear and resignation when we try to obtain it, either for the first time, by renewal or by extension.
What is supposed to be an easy process before the Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and foreign (SAIME), the issuing body of the document, can cost time, effort and money ... a lot of money.
According to the Saime, obtaining the passport for the first time is a simple process of two requirements if one is of legal age and seven steps to follow. The requirements: request the appointment in the Saime portal and pay 12 tributary units, equivalent to less than 10 cents.
If the person wants to have their passport renewed in record time, the Saime offers the modality of an express passport, for which an additional amount must be paid on the official platform with the promise of receiving it within 72 hours. Otherwise you must wait several weeks, you do not know how many, to receive it.
That is the theory. But in practice is another situation that begins when the user is unable to enter the Saime portal and must go to one of the offices to be sent by email a temporary password to later modify their data online.
Diverse are the obstacles that throws the platform and make more distant the coveted document. From the so-called alternate flow that implies that the dactyloscopic check that blocks the process when it is processed for the first time, data synchronization, application pending approval, even the errors that the Saime portal throws that prevent it from progressing in the payment to obtain the passport express.
The passport officially costs $ 0.10. But the innumerable obstacles in the online process lead people to end up paying managers with some contact who charge them up to $ 1,500.
It has become routine for the Venezuelan to stay hours and hours behind a computer trying to manage the passport, or failing that, resist a prolonged period of time in queues in front of the Saime offices.
In 2014, the process took only about 15 days from when the user requested the appointment until he withdrew the passport in the office. There was no express modality, it was canceled by bank deposit and there was a passport delivery service at home.
Four years later, everything has gotten worse in an incredible way where we are practically abligan to pay big amounts in dollars to obtain the document, I hope that after reading this they understand everything that costs us to obtain an important document like the passport.
And in your country is it easy to get a passport? Can you renew your passport or take it out for the first time without so many inconveniences? I would like to know what the process is like