Passports: no appointments available in Bergamo, over three months waiting time in Milan. The Italian one among the most expensive in Europe

Shorter times to get the appointment at the police headquarters for the issue and renewal of the passport, but not enough in the larger cities. This is what emerges from the new survey conducted by Altroconsumo in 19 Italian cities (Ancona, Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Bolzano, Cagliari, Catania, Florence, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Perugia, Pescara, Pordenone, Potenza, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Turin and Trento) where on 30 April the consumers' association asked its collaborators to try to book an appointment on the State Police platform to check waiting times.

The comparison with the time taken almost six months ago (on 14 November 2023) shows a narrow improvement in general: on 30 April, in just one city, Bergamo, no appointments were available, while in the previous survey there were six (Bologna, Genoa, Milan, Pordenone, Potenza and Turin). The good news is that reasonable waiting times emerged in 10 out of 19 cities: from 20 days in Bari to 2 days in Pescara, by far the fastest. It takes 17 days in Rome.

Waiting times remain too long for such an important document, especially in the most populous cities: in Milan and Cagliari over three months, in Naples, Bologna, Florence and Turin between two and three months. If, however, we want to look at the glass half full, we have to say that we have come out of the deep red of the ministerial platform that in November gave no availability to Milan, Turin and Bologna. There are still major inconveniences for the citizens of Pordenone: more than eight months of waiting to be able to go to the police headquarters, too long even though six months ago we had found no appointments available. Unfortunately, even cities that we had not detected six months ago, such as Bergamo, Florence and Trento, do not have any nice surprises in store for us: the first one does not provide any availability, in the other two it takes more than two months to set foot in a police station (71 and 65 days respectively).

Under the Madonnina, the questuras are still clogged as on 30 April on the booking platform the first available appointment was after 100 days, far too many, but six months ago there was no availability. The same under the Mole, where in April the film scheduled is no longer 'no availability' in November, but '69 days to go to the questura'. The review is better, but the film is not convincing: still more than two months of waiting for the Turinese. The same thing for Bologna where the waiting days on 30 April were a good 72, more than two months.

Altroconsumo's survey shows that in five cities we have gone from the unacceptable waits of 6 months ago (almost 8 months in Bolzano, 5 in Bari, almost 4 in Ancona and Reggio Calabria) to appointments available after a few days: 6 days (Bolzano), 20 (Bari), 8 (Ancona) and 10 (Reggio Calabria). In fact, there are many police headquarters that have taken steps to speed up the times by reorganising the offices in charge and increasing the dedicated staff. For example, this is the case in Bolzano and Bari, where there has been a turnaround compared to the survey of six months ago. In Bolzano on 14 November last year, the appointment at the police headquarters was available after almost eight months, while on 30 April the waiting time was reduced to six days. The same happened in Bari where the Questura in March allocated new resources to passport applications and increased opening hours to the public. Thus, we have gone from the biblical waiting times recorded six months ago, when it took almost five months (152 days) to go to the Questura, to the more reasonable waiting time of 30 April: 20 days.