Dozens of Lebanese waiting in front of the gate of the General Security offices in Halba, Akkar, on March 6, 2023. (Credit: Michel Hallak/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Dozens of Lebanese flocked on Monday to the General Security offices in Beirut and North Lebanon, on the first day of the new walk-in procedure for the granting of passports. Under this system citizens may go to General Security without making an appointment to apply for a passport.
In Beirut, long queues formed in the morning in front of General Security's main offices in Adlieh, where only emergency passports are issued.
One person, who went there to renew his travel document, told our publication that the process took two hours.
In Halba, in Akkar in North Lebanon, dozens of Lebanese gathered in front of the local General Security offices, our correspondent Michel Hallak reported.
Prior to today, General Security had been using an appointment system set up on an electronic platform to cope with a high demand for passports since the onset of Lebanon's economic crisis in 2019.
As a result of the high demand, waiting times for such appointments had stretched sometimes to more than a year. Now, General Security says only those passport applicants who need to obtain the document urgently will need to use the electronic platform.