passports

During a trip to Val-de-Marne, the minister in charge of communities Dominique Faure announced on Friday 13 January the opening of 500 new counters throughout France to allow more town halls to receive requests for identity documents, passports or national identity card (CNI). A new attempt by the public authorities to remedy the problem of the extreme length of the deadlines to make or redo his identity papers, often more than three months.

Already in the spring of 2022, the government announced that it would urgently release 10 million euros to speed up the procedures. Last November, as part of the finance bill, the previous Minister for Communities Caroline Cayeux announced an additional envelope of 20 million euros. And despite everything, the situation still seems just as critical. How to explain such an embolism?

Health crisis

The government insists on the post-health crisis context. With the end of confinement, the French rushed to the administration for procedures interrupted in 2021. As a result, we went from 9 million requests in 2019 to more than 12 million in 2022. “This increase has led to a significant deterioration in the times for making appointments at the town hall, which reached an average of 90 days in May 2022”recalled Dominique Faure on Friday.

But this does not explain everything. Of the 35,000 French municipalities, only 2,500 are equipped with devices allowing the transmission, via a secure network, of the information needed to create a ticket. The 20 million should make it possible to encourage town halls to open sites for collecting requests.

There is also a logistical difficulty linked to the dematerialization of procedures. To redo an identity document, it is advisable to complete a pre-request form on the website of the national agency for secure documents (ants.gouv.fr). But then you have to make an appointment and that’s where the difficulties start. In November, a new dedicated site to the process should facilitate the rendezvouspasseport.ants.gouv.fr procedure.

We tried to apply, Saturday January 14th. However, whether you are in Niort (Deux-Sèvres) or Avignon (Vaucluse), no slot is available before April 14. “We invite you to modify your search dates and renew your request”, the software responds. By extending the meeting search zone to 60 km from the cities concerned, we still get no results for Deux-Sèvres and Avignon, only one offer in Valréas, 51 km from Avignon, for April 11 !

13 to 14 million requests

The public authorities explain this lack of responsiveness by the fact that only 800 municipalities have connected to the platform out of the 2,500 municipalities that receive requests for identity documents. The ANTS site also specifies to the applicant that he can turn directly to the local counter. « You can also contact the town hall of your choice directly to find out about other appointment arrangements..

What we tried to do on the site of the town hall of Niort, with an identical result: no slot available before mid-April. Identical failure on the site of the town hall of Paris. Gabriel, a young Parisian who recently managed to redo his identity card gives a clue. “New slots are put online daily at the end of the morning but they are taken by storm. So you have to connect around eleven o’clock and try your luck. » Another possibility is to go directly to the town hall or try private sites that allow you to find an appointment more quickly.

Anyway, it is better to do it well in advance if you want to file a file. The situation is likely to be even more tense by the summer: the government expects 13 million or 14 million requests this year.