A visit to the Mobile Unit of the Bahamas Passport office team in South Eleuthera on Wednesday, October 7th, 2015, proved fruitless for several Eleutherans. A significant number of people left the Town Council office building in Rock Sound, disappointed that they could not be seen by the representatives of the Unit who were offering application processing services for a short five hours, from 9am until 2:30pm.
The visit of the Passport Office team to Eleuthera, removes an otherwise costly and burdensome process of travelling to New Providence to place an application.
Local government organizers explained that a pre-application process had taken place during the week before the unit’s arrival to justify their trip to the island, which had not been communicated to the wider Eleuthera public. The limited pre-application process yielded 40-60 applicants, who were given priority service during the short Wednesday visit, resulting in the majority of walk-in applicants not being served, despite a one hour time extension to 3:30pm, before the Mobile Unit made its way back to New Providence.
Administrator for South Eleuthera, Mrs. Margaret Symonette, stated that due to the demand seen during the Wednesday visit, another trip to the island by the Mobile Unit was being planned for the week of October 13th, following the holiday weekend. However, the dates and times of this upcoming visit have not yet been confirmed.
