Expatriates wanting to go on vacation and needing to update their information are struggling to find new passport offices that were set up by the government about a month ago.
There are now five offices for this purpose in Jeddah. The main office is in central Jeddah’s East Baghdadia, commonly known as Kandra. There are three offices in Rehab District — at the back of Dallah Tower, on Tadamun Al-Arabi Street and on Shaikh Muhammad bin Jubair Street. The fifth office is on Sari Street.
Expatriates are required to update their information if they either renew their passports or get new passports after losing their originals. It takes from three to six hours to update information.
The offices were set up without any announcement on locations, according to some observers. This has resulted in many expatriates roaming the streets for hours or entering other government offices by mistake.
At the Rehab District office, a Sudanese national, who did not want to be identified, said it was tough getting his son's naqal maloumat (transferring visa details) done on the passport. He reported outside the office at 4:15 in the morning. When the gates opened at 8 a.m. all hell broke loose. People rushed in and there was chaos. Names were called and tickets handed according to a provisional list prepared by applicants. The applicants were distributed “I” and “H” series tokens. Those who received tokens in the “I” series were told to come another day without further explanation.
New passport offices are difficult to locate
