MINISTER of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, clarified, on Monday, that there were no pending applications for death, marriage or birth certificates at the Guyana Registrar’s Office (GRO) for the years 2018, 2021, and up to October 2022.

The Home Affairs Minister said that in response to questions posed by Opposition Parliamentarians in the National Assembly on Monday. He also explained that the waiting period varies after an application is received by GRO.

The office utilises different procedures to facilitate the requests for certificates, which forms part of its current efforts to modernise its services to increase efficiency. Further, the waiting time for the applicants to receive these certificates depends on the methods utilised.

The Department of Public Information (DPI) noted that persons applying for the documents through the Guyana Post Office Corporation can expect the return of the documents within seven to eight weeks. Meanwhile, persons applying by visiting the office can have the certificates within 24 hours to seven working days, which is based on the information provided and available.

“If there is a variant which is in the records, an amendment correction is needed,” Minister Benn was quoted as saying by DPI.

Persons applying online will receive their certificates within 48 hours and 14 days, which is based on their location in Guyana. This is also dependent on if the applicant’s request for the certificate/s is to be mailed or a ‘walk-in pick up’.

Minister Benn also provided the National Assembly with the number of pending passport applications for 2020, 2021, and October 2022 for each of the administrative regions. He underlined that there were eight pending passport applications in 2020, 16 in 2021, and 44 in 2022.

He emphasised that the waiting time varied to receive a passport after an application is received from the Central Intelligence Office of Guyana for the respective periods.

Generally, the waiting time for a passport in Georgetown, Region Four from 2018 to 2022 was five working days. The waiting time from May 2022 to October 2022 was 40 working days.

“This is simply because of that transition to a new method of producing the passport and the large number of requests that we recently had concerning obtaining the passport. This is because many of the banks and other institutions required a second method of identification,” the minister explained.

From 2018 to date, the waiting time to receive a passport after an application is made at the sub-offices is seven days.