Those who have to go on vacation abroad, outside of Europe, this summer know it well: you have to be prepared to renew your identity papers, otherwise the vacation is compromised. With the reopening of borders and the end of the Covid crisis, waiting times are getting longer in many town halls. The deadlines for having an appointment to redo one’s papers are on average 65 days in France today, compared to 12 days a year ago. The situation is even more complicated in some municipalities.
Four months of waiting for a first meeting in Marseille
Thus, in Marseilles, it takes four months of waiting for a first appointment, to which are then added the processing times for the file and the printing of identity documents.
Suddenly to speed up the process, Shérazade goes out of her way. She tells : “I try to see in other districts the places available, to see if there are any withdrawals. I go there a little with the nerve and I call all the town halls. With a lot of courage and determination, it is still long.”
In Toulon, the city adds available slots and staff
Faced with these extended deadlines, some have found the solution: they are changing town halls! Indeed, you are not obliged to go to the town hall of your place of residence to carry out the procedures. Thus, the employees of the civil status service of Toulon are no longer surprised when they now receive phone calls from residents of the entire Paca region, but also from Paris! More than 1,800 people went to the civil registry of Toulon last week to inquire, in addition to the few 3100 phone calls.
Philippe came with his family from Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, where the delays were much longer: “I called six different towns around Saint-Cyr but each time I was offered appointments in August and September. We have already had to postpone our holidays in Morocco planned for May because of these delays. I am therefore come to Toulon where the deadlines are shorter to have a chance to leave in September. It’s amazing to have such long deadlines when everything is done online today!”
Faced with demand, the town hall of Toulon took measures for several weeks to reduce delays. “We have reassigned four agents to the reception of the public. We have also reorganized our appointment slots by reducing them to 15 minutes instead of 30” says Christelle Maddalena, Deputy Director General of Services. With these measures, 1200 slots are now available each week against 700 in normal times and it is now possible to obtain an appointment to submit your file for the following two or three days.
But, Céline Marrau, head of the civil status service, recalls that after the filing of the file, other deadlines are incompressible : “It is then necessary to process, validate and edit the file. These deadlines are also getting longer because there is a lot of demand. It is therefore necessary to count 6 to 8 weeks of waiting to obtain his identity papers after having applied for them.
At the moment, the town hall of Toulon delivers on average 900 passports or identity cards per week.