Close to 30 persons applied for and received their passports on Monday, June 1, under the new Same Day Express service offered by the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA).

The service, which costs $16,500 was introduced as new passport fees became effective.

Chief Executive Officer of PICA, Jennifer McDonald, said the same-day service was implemented at the request of clients.

"There is a demand ... many persons would book (an airline) ticket, and then realise that their passport had expired, and they would rather pay (for the service) than have to pay the difference to rebook their flight," she noted.

Persons must apply for same-day service by 10 a.m. on the day, and the passport can be collected by 3:30 p.m.

The PICA head said that the agency "is always seeking to meet the needs of its clients, and the new service is part of an initiative to improve the quality of our service to our customers".

McDonald noted that the agency's offices were temporarily relocated to the National Indoor Sports Centre and staff worked up to midnight some days. "It shows that we have an extremely good team at the agency," she said.

The same-day express service is only offered at PICA's head office on Constant Spring Road in St Andrew.