Sri Lanka’s upgraded online passport appointment system eliminates month-long queues and mafia

Sri Lanka’s upgraded online passport appointment system that went live early Wednesday morning has garnered over 7,500 token applications (by Wednesday), managing to beat the months-long queues and the online passport token mafia, top officials said.

The previous online token system was designed to issue only a limited number of tokens daily without any transparency in the process, leading to a mini mafia in the area dealing in the token business, the officials noted further. “The earlier system did not have a validation method. Photo studios and communication shops in the area had logged into the system very early to secure almost all the tokens and resell them to the applicants. The public was rarely able to get a token online,” one official said. He added the business was so lucrative for them that the rent in the area had also risen, creating a separate ecosystem.

The Ministry of Public Security, its’ Minister Vijitha Herath, the Acting Immigration Controller, and the National People's Power ICT team managed to coordinate and implement this system within six days, the official added.

He added the new system works 24/7 without any limitations. (DEC)