20,000 New Passport Forms Arrive

20,000 new passport forms have been made available to citizens. However, they will be issued only to those who have a so-called urgent procedure appointment, whose cost is three times higher.

People who’ve submitted a medical certificate, too, will get passports. Part of the forms are bilingual. Caretaker Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said on Tuesday that the previous management of the institution was to blame for the situation.

He once again called on MPs to solve the passport issue in line with the example of the driving licences issue, that is, by passing changes that will extend the validity until 31 December 2024. Despite the previous announcements, citizens were not able to check on Tuesday either whether their travel documents were completed.

The Ministry’s Internal Control Department said it had opened an internal investigation about the changes that had seen 20,000 instead of 400,000 forms arrive.