Registry offices not to demand fee hike: Minister

Those whose passport appointments were delayed until the new year due to the intensity despite paying the fee last December will be exempt from the hikes made on Jan. 1, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has announced.

The move came after many citizens filed complaints via the Presidential Communications Center (CİMER).

"As of the beginning of this week [Jan. 9], the fee gap will not be demanded from those who have made their payments by Dec. 31, 2022," Soylu said, noting that he has given instructions to the relevant units for the same.

The minister also pointed out that while normally around 2.1 million passports are issued annually, around 7,000 per day, 4.5 million passport requests were made in 2022.

Last December, after the announcement of a 123 percent increase in passport fees in the new year, citizens flocked to the registry offices to obtain passports paying the former price.

However, due to the high volume, the offices gave the appointments of those who paid their fees for 2023. But people were taken aback as the offices demanded them to pay the increased price difference as they showed up on the day of their appointment in the new year.