In some municipalities, the deadlines for getting an appointment at the town hall, in order to obtain identity documents, have exploded recently.
You may have noticed, when starting the process to have an appointment at the town hall, in order to obtain an identity document or renew it: in some municipalities, especially in urban areas, the delays have lengthened considerably. The main reasons for this phenomenon are the increase in requests linked to the lifting of travel restrictions, but also the “catching up” requests not made in the last two yearsdue to the Covid-19 pandemic, tells us Release.
A phenomenon observed everywhere in France
The situation is surprising. On the site of the town hall of Paris, it has become impossible to make an appointment for this reason, as several Internet users have indicated on Twitter. In Finistère, in Pont-l’Abbé, you have to wait until the end of June or the beginning of July to get a date. And everywhere in the territory, from Bordeaux to Rennes, via Toulouse, Lyon and Lille, the inhabitants are faced with the same pitfalls. According to the figures communicated to our colleagues by the National Agency for Secure Documents (ANTS), the average national time for town hall appointments was estimated at twenty-seven days, in January 2022. In other words, this corresponds to ten days more than in 2019…
It must be said that with the successive confinements, the demand for the production of identity documents fell sharply from March 2020. ANTS has assessed this collapse in demand at -39% for passports and -18% for identity cardsbetween 2020 and 2021, details Release. In detail, according to the latest ANTS annual activity report, approximately one million fewer identity cards were produced in 2020, compared to 2019. This missing demand for permits was then transferred to the year 2021; as soon as the lives of citizens resumed a semblance of “normality”, and that countries have reopened their borders. Another reason given by the ANTS to the national newspaper: the new identity card, effective August 2, 2021, “which no doubt prompted some to anticipate their request for renewal”.
Are you going this summer? Make an appointment quickly!
If you want to go on vacation abroad with peace of mind this summer, be aware that town halls strongly recommend that you make an appointment now for identity cards and passports, given the current deadlines. Good to know : if your town hall cannot receive you, you have the possibility of trying your luck in those further away from your home. In addition, a temporary passport said to“emergency” may be delivered to you if your trip is imperative; in other words, for medical reasons (illness, death of a loved one, etc.), humanitarian reasons, or even for professional reasons. But this is only valid for one year.