Skopje, 21 October 2022 (MIA) – The Ministry of Interior has installed a total of 11 base stations for issuing passports in New York, Venice, Brussels, Stockholm, Ljubljana, London, Bern, Vienna, Bonn, Berlin and Munich, as well as 5 mobile stations. A total of 16,600 passports have been issued as of October, while 1,800 passports have been issued in Berlin alone, said Minister of Interior Oliver Spasovski at a meeting with Chargé d'Affaires at the Macedonian Embassy in Berlin, Dragan Petkovski on Friday. According to the Ministry, the significance of the base station for issuance of travel documents in Berlin was emphasized at the meeting, due to the large number of Macedonian citizens living and working in Germany. The base station was installed as a part of a joint project by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that began in October 2021. Minister Spasovski expressed his satisfaction that the entire procedure for issuing passports takes 15-30 days. “This is a serious shortening of the duration of the procedure, if you take into account that the previous procedure for issuing passports was costly and lasted 4-5 months on average. Now we receive requests and process them on a daily basis, by checking data in real time,” said Spasovski. He emphasized there has also been a reduction of the queues at the administrative services in North Macedonia during the summer months, because the citizens can now receive the same services at the embassies and consulates in their respective countries of residence. “This further confirms that we have accomplished our goal for the Ministry of Interior to become a real service to the citizens, providing an efficient and economical response to their needs,” said Spasovski. He added that the Ministry will continue to care for Macedonian citizens abroad, with specific commitments such as these, along with the commitments aimed at promoting the traditional friendship and partnership between North Macedonia and Germany. ad/ik/