At around Friday noon, hundreds of people had gathered outside Room 18, the grievance and complaints section of the Department of Passports in Tripureshwar, Kathmandu. In the midday heat, they were visibly exhausted. Some sat on the floor, while others milled about, clutching documents and receipts in their hands.

They had each paid Rs12,000 for a passport that was supposed to arrive in three days. But the deadline had already passed.

“I was told I’d get it by Wednesday,” said Nim Dorje Sherpa from Bhojpur, who applied for the passport on Monday. “It’s already Friday. But I still haven’t received it.”

Sherpa had arrived in Kathmandu from Bhojpur, hoping to get his passport quickly and to be able to process for his UK visit on time. Instead, like hundreds of others, he now found himself stranded.

Despite promises of “fast-track” processing of passport delivery within three days for a raised fee of Rs12,000, applicants report delays of up to a week. While officials often blame “technical glitch,” applicants see it as a reflection of long-standing institutional rot and neglect in government offices.

Sherpa lamented he had already spent around Rs40,000 on the passport, including on transport and accommodation. “Yesterday, they said servers would start working from today, and I would get the passport,” Sherpa said. “Now they’re saying Sunday or Monday. How can I trust them?”

Through a regular process, one can prepare a passport at one’s home district for a fee of Rs5,000. That process, however, takes up to a month. But those who need the document urgently opt to pay Rs12,000 at the Tripureshwor office, hoping to get their passports within three days. They made for long queues outside the department office on Friday.

Some had only days left for their flights. Others were racing against tight visa deadlines or needed to submit documents urgently to embassies or manpower agencies. For them, even a day’s delay could mean a missed flight or a lost job opportunity. And every extra day of delay in Kathmandu was adding to their financial burden.

Sherpa questions why a vital department like the passport office, seen as the last resort, operates with faulty servers. “They didn’t mention a word about this server thing while taking money,” Sherpa told the Post. “They gave us false hope and duped us.”

Just beside him, Malti, a young mother from a struggling family, held her crying two-year-old daughter close. “I’ve come here three days in a row with my sick baby. I’m applying to go to Kuwait for work as soon as possible,” Malti, who the Post is identifying with a pseudonym for privacy, said. “But nothing works here. That Rs12,000 means the world to us lower-middle-class people.”

Malti had applied for the passport on Sunday (May 11).

“Instead of helping, they say ‘Why did you apply at the last minute?’ If they had been honest about the delays, many of us wouldn’t have applied,” she said.

This is not the first time the department has had such problems. Last November, a computer virus infiltration disrupted its services for an entire week. Even in January 2023, the department paused passport distribution for some time, citing technical issues.

For others like Sonu Kahar, who applied six days before (May 11), the experience has been financially exhausting. “The Rs20,000 I borrowed to come to Kathmandu is gone,” Kahar, who hails from Nawalparasi, said. “How am I supposed to survive here now?”

On its website, the passport department says passport delivery takes 2 to 3 working days after enrollment. It, however, adds a condition that if the details of citizenship, National Identity Card, and old passport, etcetera, are not verified or the photograph does not meet ICAO criteria, further investigation would be required. In case of such a mistake, applicants get a message on their phone instructing them to contact the office for correction.

However, the aforementioned service seekers were not given any such reason.

Meanwhile, for another applicant, Hukum Lal Rao from Dhanusha, the delay costs him additional charges from the manpower agency. “The manpower agency told me to submit the documents this week, but now I’ve missed the deadline,” he said. “Now I will have to pay extra.”

Shatrudhwan Pokharel, director and spokesperson of the department, acknowledged the delays but insisted the issue was a rare technical glitch.

“The server went down on May 15, functioned briefly this morning [May 16], but has been running very slowly since 11 am,” said Pokharel. “Servers slow down sometimes, but this is the most severe disruption we’ve experienced during my four months in office.”

He emphasised that the department would try to do some internal work on Saturday (May 17) to clear the backlog.

Responding to accusations of false promises, he said, “Our track record shows that passports are usually delivered within three days. Unless there’s a technical issue, we honour that timeline.”

Pokharel mentioned that before this week, cases of applicants not receiving their passports within three days were close to none.

However, vendors outside the passport office tell a different story.

A woman selling passport covers said delays are common. According to her, when things go well, some get their passports in three days, and those with connections may get them in two. But when the server slows down, the process can be delayed for up to a week. “The public’s frustration isn’t just about the delay, it’s about being misled,” she added.

A stationery and printing shop owner nearby, who’s spent years helping applicants fill forms, agreed, saying officials don’t give a clear picture. Many people end up confused, coming to the stationery and printing shops nearby for information. Delays aren’t always because of the server; sometimes it’s minor mistakes in the form or biometric rejections.

“But no one inside explains this clearly. People are simply told, ‘You will get your passport within three days’,” added the stationary owner. “It’s no surprise that they become upset and angry when things don’t go as promised.”

The current passport crisis, coupled with the malware attack in November, highlights a deep-seated pattern of digital dysfunction within Nepal’s public offices.

These problems are far from new.

Key agency websites, including those of the department of transport management, the election commission, Tribhuvan International Airport, and Tribhuvan University, often go offline due to server issues or cyberattacks, leaving users troubled.

For example, Malti had an appointment for her national ID on May 8 in Narayanhiti, expecting it to take an hour (as stated in the online appointment). Instead, it took two days, with seven hours of standing in queues, due to recurrent server issues.

Shayana Manandhar, a cybersecurity expert and information security consultant at One Cover Private Limited, a cybersecurity company, explained that the core issue with Nepal’s public offices is outdated infrastructure. The integrated data centre that hosts government websites lacks sufficient security, server capacity, and modern software. “Overloaded systems, administrative negligence, lack of skilled personnel and poor planning worsen the situation,” Manandhar said.

Manandhar added Nepal needs regular system audits, cybersecurity awareness, and more investment in infrastructure. “Otherwise,” she said, “this will keep happening.”