In January, 80% more travel documents were requested from the Inland Finland Police Department than in December. Queues are long, especially in Tampere.
On Tuesdays, the door to the permit services opens at 9am, and Nurmi was first in line to apply for a passport.
– I had to leave early and put on some warm clothes. I took unpaid leave from work in the morning so that I could maybe visit Estonia with the kids during the winter holidays,” Nurmi says.
Nurmi went to see the situation already on Monday, and there was no hope of getting a passport then. The appointment was only booked for the end of May, so the only option was to queue.
On Tuesday, about 40 people were waiting for the doors to open. The wait has been three hours.
Record number of passports issued
The passport queues of the Inner Finland Police Department attracted attention last year. The police department has the largest population, as 900,000 people live in Pirkanmaa and Central Finland.
The police department issued the most travel documents in Finland last year, i.e. passports and identity cards. The demand for passports was affected by the war in Ukraine and the easing of the corona pandemic. In March alone, nearly 35,000 passports or identity cards were placed pending, which is about 2.5 times the number compared to normal time and the most among the Finnish police departments.
Sharp rise early in the year
In December, the numbers already fell, but then in January there was another surprise. The number increased by 80 percent. The queues grew.
– Such a drastic increase in January was a surprise. Spring and summer have traditionally been a busy time, one could predict that the demand will continue to be high until the summer. Yes, we have to find an answer to that, and yes we will be found. Unfortunately, the resource comes with a delay, says Back.
Last year, a permit service car was brought to Tampere from Central Finland, and this may come in handy again. Most can order a passport online.
– Patience and patience when waiting in line and contact us if you need to get your passport quickly. You can travel, it won’t be stuck on your passport. One way or another, we’ll make sure you get on the trip, says Back.
Jani Nurme’s waiting in the cold was spent chatting with others.
– You can’t have a sheath tune at this hour.