With Australia and NZ’s international borders closed, the need to renew an expired passport seems redundant. It’s true, it’s an awful lot of money and time to waste on something you can’t use yet. And a lot of Australians and New Zealanders are in agreeance with this as figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Passport Office show a significant drop in renewals. Based on the number of passports that were issued in 2018-19, around 552,000 Australian passports were expected to be issued between April and June. However, there was a 67% reduction in renewals, which resulted in a loss of $111 million in revenue to the Australian Government. So, the logic still stands.
Why would you renew your executive’s passport now? Your executives might not be concerned about renewing it while they aren’t able to attend any international meetings and events, but consider this: what happens when the borders finally open? Everyone who didn’t want to renew or apply for a passport in 2020 will suddenly want a rush order so they can travel again. The influx of applications is expected to be through the roof, and will no doubt cause extreme delays and wait times. Especially considering the delays COVID-19 has already inflicted on post delivery times. While it might not seem like something useful in the current circumstances—considering corporate travel is expected to have a slow return—renewing it now could save your executive a lot of hassle down the track. And with a Trans-Tasman travel bubble on the horizon, your executive will be on a plane to your NZ counterparts sooner than you’d think
