up to three months of waiting in some town halls in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais
Only a few months away from the summer holidays, it is high time to anticipate your identity card or passport renewal! At the start of the year, the town halls of Nord-Pas-de-Calais are overwhelmed with requests for meetings: for some large town halls in urban areas, it takes up to three months to wait.
A catch-up effect due to Covid, mainly
It is in Arras, in the Pas-de-Calais, at the Center of Expertise and Resources for Titles (CERT) that applications for titles are registered. Director Cédric Dupont observes real excitement at the start of the year : “we are used to dealing with seasonal peaks, but it happens a little earlier this year.“
He explains it by an a priori obvious mechanical effect: “there is a return to normal. We were already on this rhythm there in 2019, and then there was an air gap in 2020 and 2021. He also mentions the Brexit effect, since to go to the United Kingdom, you now need a passport, as well as a fashion effect : “You will not have missed that we have seen a reform of the identity card, which has changed format, and which has become biometric. It is more attractive.” Its services have recorded on average, in recent weeks, from 3,200 to 4,000 files per day for the entire region.
Processing times are not longer. Count on average 15 days, the time to manufacture and send the new title. The prefectural services are reinforced by temporary workers in order to reduce delays.
Tips to avoid waiting too long
To try to get his precious sesame more quickly, it is advisable to tour the town halls in your area. Some, smaller or more rural, may be less busy. You will find their complete list here for the North, and at this address for Pas-de-Calais. Furthermore, the Pas de Calais prefecture even recommends go to the neighboring municipalities of the department !
Other tricks exist, underlines Anne-Gaëlle Baudouin, at the head of the National Agency for Secure Documents (ANTS): “resort to the online pre-request saves time at the town hall, and therefore the town hall to offer more appointment slots.”
If the request is really urgent, there is always a way out: “for reasons of professional trips abroad, urgent, sudden, or for trips in the context of the death or hospitalization of a loved one, there is obviously an acceleration of the procedure “ says Cédric Dupont.