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passport

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Have passport, will travel everywhere… if I had all the money in the world. Do you feel the same?

A while ago I wrote about how you can apply for your South African passport and ID online. Now I’m going to tell you what you need when applying for you kids’ passports.

Complete the online application for a minor. Choose where you would like to complete the biometrics (photo, verification, etc) and upload a copy of both parents’ ID documents. ( They also have an option if one parent is no longer in the picture.) Pay the R400 and wait for your confirmation SMS.

On the day of your kids’ passport appointment this is what you should take along:

– Both parents
– Both parents’ IDs
– All the kids’ unabridged birth certificates

When you arrive to the home affairs (at FNB or other bank) find the greeter to put their ID numbers in a book and get a number – without this even if you have an appointment you don’t exist to the officials…

They will first take a picture of the kid, then fingerprint both parents – and voila, you’re done!

Home affairs will send an SMS when you can pick up the passport/s.

How our appointment with Lexa went…

Not well, not well at all. The day of our appointment their system was offline. We waited for an hour – with – a – kid – that – got – bored. We eventually left after more than an hour with instructions to return another day.

We returned two days later. Second group through the door. Unfortunately my number 2 ticket didn’t guarantee us the second spot… oh no, we had to wait for 13 people to first get through their appointment… that took more than an hour.

Thank goodness I don’t have to take Lexa with when I pick up her passport!

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to any service provided by the government, I want to run for the hills. Service is with a sour face, slow and at best barely registers on a scale of acceptable – and let’s not even go down the road about how the grime just stares at you from chairs, desks and biometric equipment!

Dealing with government workers and services is every South African’s nightmare in my opinion.

Well, last week I realised that my passport will no longer be accepted for travel, I only had a month left before its expiry. Sigh! I still remember the queues at home affairs from last time, the frantic search for the right forms and how I felt like dousing myself with Dettol to get rid of whatever I may have picked up from the equipment…

Then I remembered, I can now do the application online and go to FNB for biometrics! No more home affairs! OMG, it was a breeze. I completed the form online for both my ID and passport, made the appointment at FNB Sandton (on WEST ST, Merchant Place), paid online and received an SMS with my appointment information.

On the day I arrived at FNB, sat for 5 minutes before being called and VOILA!, I was done before I broke a sweat. That was on a Friday. The following Tuesday just before 3pm I got an SMS to say my ID is ready for pickup! The Friday morning before 9am another SMS – my passport is ready! Quick service like this is totally unheard of from a government run anything – right?

Where to find this magical portal to home affairs bliss:

Remember, this is a government website and as such they optimise for usage on Internet Explorer. They also say that you have to print out your completed application – not true, I tried everything to print out the document and finally just gave up and arrived at FNB without. Turns out, they didn’t need it.

On this site you can:

  • Submit applications online
  • Upload supporting documents
  • Make online payments
  • And schedule a booking to visit a Home Affairs enabled Bank offices

You can also complete the form online and then go to a home affairs to do the biometrics – because the enabled banks (with home affairs officials) aren’t everywhere yet.