Contention Over Passport Issuance Agency Designation Intensifies; Gyeonggi Province Pushes Back

Gyeonggi Province is pushing back against the Foreign Ministry's concentrated designation of passport issuance agencies in Seoul's districts.

According to the Foreign Ministry and Gyeonggi Province on the 10th, the Foreign Ministry plans to designate 11 new locations—10 districts in Seoul including Gangdong-gu and Anyang City in Gyeonggi Province—as passport issuance agencies to resolve passport application backlogs, and has notified relevant local governments.

With the addition of 11 new passport issuance agencies, the national total will expand from the current 31 to 42.

Notably, Seoul will add 10 new districts to its existing 10 districts, bringing passport issuance services to 20 out of 25 total districts.

In contrast, Gyeonggi Province, which has a larger population than Seoul, will add only Anyang City to its existing four locations including the provincial office, suggesting passport application backlogs will persist.

According to analysis by Gyeonggi Province, through May of this year, the two passport issuance agencies in Gyeonggi Province (provincial office and second office) issued a total of 162,000 passports, compared to 699,000 issued by 10 agencies in Seoul, representing more than 10,000 additional issuances per agency.

Particularly at the provincial office, which handles passport issuance for 8.1 million residents in southern Gyeonggi, each civil servant processes 14,958 passports, the most severe backlog in the nation.

As a result, residents line up from 4 a.m. to receive ticket numbers for passport applications, and residents of the Anyang region (Anyang, Gunpo, Uiwang, Gwacheon) travel to Guro or Yeongdeungpo districts in Seoul, while residents of the Pyeongtaek region (Pyeongtaek, Anseong) travel to Cheongju in North Chungcheong Province or Daejeon for passport issuance, facing significant inconvenience.

A provincial official stated, "Gyeonggi Province has a larger population than Seoul and is 17 times larger in area, yet has only four passport issuance agencies, resulting in continuous citizen complaints at each facility," and added, "We attempted to establish additional passport issuance agencies in three locations—Anyang, Bucheon, and Pyeongtaek—in August to resolve this issue, but only one was designated."

In response, a Foreign Ministry official stated, "While Gyeonggi Province has increased agencies by three in the past, Seoul has not increased any, and since issuance delays occur mainly in Seoul, we are prioritizing Seoul's expansion," and explained, "To expand passport issuance agencies, we must install expensive passport machines, but the available supply is limited, so we cannot approve every request."