Passports, how the new priority agenda works for those who need them within 30 days

It started quietly as an experiment in a couple of Questuras and has now become practically the rule, from Milan to Bari, from Florence to Agrigento: the new "On-line Priority Agenda", dedicated to those who need to obtain the document within thirty days, has made its debut on the telematic systems dedicated to the procedures for obtaining passports. A different way from the ordinary one to try to curb, in the run-up to the summer, the chaos of delays in the leopard's spots, also recently detected by an enquiry of the Sole 24 Ore and accompanied by the alert of travel agencies and tour operators, according to which in the two-year period 2022-2023 inefficiencies have caused about 167 thousand trips to be cancelled, causing at least 300 million in revenues to vanish.

On paper, a fast track for emergencies should always have been guaranteed. According to what is written on the ad hoc page of the State Police "if there are reasons of urgency due to work, health, study, tourism or other reasons, adequately justified, it will be possible to apply directly to the competent Questura according to the modalities that each Questura publishes on its own site to obtain the release of the passport in a timely manner". The problem is that citizens have often complained about the difficulty, if not impossibility, of accessing the priority channel. With the consequent corollary of missed trips and cancelled bookings.

Hence the novelty: dividing the agendas into two on the passaportonline.poliziadistato.it site, where it is possible to book appointments and separate fast lanes from those for those who can wait, even months. With one caveat, however, that they emphasise from the Viminale's Public Security Department: urgency must be demonstrated. It means that, once the appointment has been requested, one must present oneself on the day and at the time indicated at the passport office with 'documentation proving the need to issue a passport as a matter of priority', i.e. airline tickets, for those who have already purchased them, or papers proving the obligation to travel for work or study reasons.

For days, the Questuras have been communicating on their portals the activation of the new procedure by the ministry. In some cases, however, 'reinforced'. It happens, for instance, in Monza, which had been particularly tried by the boom of requests registered at the beginning of the year. In addition to the Priority Agenda, the Questura (Police Headquarters) has in fact made it known that, if no appointment is available, the citizen will be directed to a further alternative, which involves filling in a form to be filled out, printed and shown at the passport counter should there be a need to obtain a passport within 15 days. In the latter case, no appointment will be scheduled: the user can come in any day from Monday to Friday during morning opening hours, where the documentation will be checked and the request will be processed according to the need represented.