The Passport office was bombarded for the second day in a row yesterday as Jamaicans scrambled to beat the deadline for fee increases announced by the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA).

The new rates for passport and passport services take effect November 16.

On Wednesday, Claudia Small, of a Bog Walk, St Catherine address, said she brought her two children, Toni-Ann Small and Odane Small, into Kingston to process their passports. The children, who attend high schools in Bog Walk and Charlemont, arrived at the passport office at 9:30 a.m. and up to 2:30 p.m. had not yet been processed.

Claudia lamented that she had to take her children out of school for the day and that she hoped they would not have to waste another day to do it again.

Two frustrated customers, Khadian Griffiths and Jodi-Ann Cadogan, who had travelled all the way from St Thomas, were both quite agitated by their long wait as they said they were there from the wee hours of the morning and, because of the size of the crowd, had doubts about whether they would get through.

The two women said they were unhappy with the large increase slated for the cost of some services rendered by the facility.

Not enough notice

They complained that more adequate notice should have been provided about the planned increases, especially in the current recession period.

Jennifer McDonald, CEO of PICA, said all customers on the compound would be serviced despite the size of the crowd being larger than the agency had anticipated.

On Tuesday, The Gleaner revealed that PICA would be increasing the cost of adult passports by 80 per cent, moving from $2,500 to $4,500. The price of a child's passport will also go up by 80 per cent, moving from $1,500 to $2,700.

However, the largest service hike will be the cost of replacing a lost or stolen passport, which moves from $2,500 to $9,500.

Persons will also have to fork out $5,700 to replace a child's passport which has been lost or stolen. This moves from $1,500.