How To Submit a Passport Application at FNB
PASSPORT TIME! Hard to believe that our international borders are open and we have a chance to explore the world again. BOTH our passports expired during this time and the anxiety of having to renew kicked in.
Having heard FNB renews (we’re FNB customers), we decided to give the service a go. It wasn’t as easy as it looked so we’ve created this blog post to assist those needing to renew via FNB.
3 Most Challenging Issues
There were 3 main issues that we immediately ran into when renewing:
- The actual bank location (where you have to go to have your photo’s taken)
- Paying for your passports
- Booking an Appointment
The website says you need to visit the FNB Portside – this is incorrect. The home affairs office is no longer in the Portside building, but rather in the Media Centre FNB in Somerset Road.
Park at Soverign Quay (where Beef Cakes is) and either draw money from the FNB or take cash with you as the parking is cash only, no cards.
Check out the 5 steps below to renew your passport without issues.
How To Renew Your South African Passport at FNB
1) Find the Correct Website
When you go to the South African Home Affairs website, it can be a bit tricky to navigate to the actual pages that allows you to renew your passport. To reach this website, click on the green eHome Affairs banner at the top (it looks like an advert but works just as well as the URL). This will take you through to the correct website to renew your passport.
Apparently the banner on the website no longer clicks through, please scroll down and see the new logo on the bottom right hand side of the website.
2. Register on the eHomeAffairs Site
Once on the eHome Affairs website, register by clicking the 2nd tab next to the HOME button on the menu bar. By registering you will be able to log in time and time again. Doing this first will assist you in having achieved some steps without losing everything if you make a mistake!
You will be required to input the following:
- Title
- Full Forenames
- ID Number (if you do not have a valid ID number you will not be able to register on the site).
- Initals
- Surname
- Date of Birth
- Cellphone number (ensure this is correct as they send you One Time Pins to log in).
Details must also be captured LIKE YOUR ID DOCUMENT. Your official Christian names are required.
3. Click Create New Application
This is the first step in starting your passport renewal process. The steps include:
- Select (Make a choice) – Who is the application for? (Myself / A minor) – Click next
- Form (Complete Form)
- Upload Documents (these will be supporting ID documents).
- Payment (Pay Online).
- Visit Branch (This will be for finger prints and your photos).
The website is a bit slow so sometimes you’ll want to input data before it’s ready. Watch the load icon on the browser tab as well as the on-page loading icon.
4. Approving Payments
This was really tricky. The website does not make it clear HOW to pay – and doesn’t take payment itself. You need to log onto the FNB website (or app) and approve the requested payment from FNB’s website, not on the Home Affairs website.
Log into your FNB, go to Payments, go to My Recipients, go to Payment Requests . This should show the requested payment sent through from the Home Affairs website. Once you approve that, your account will be debited, which will confirm the payment.
UPDATE: Apparently it is now in the eFiling + Smart IDs tab and will ONLY show during office hours. So please be sure to apply during working hours so you can pay for it during those times.
5. Booking an Appointment
This can be confusing as the webpage often doesn’t load or there are no available dates. The first issue is waiting for the webpage to load. If you’re clicking dropdown menus that have nothing to select, you haven’t waited long enough for the page to load. (Yes, it’s slow!)
To actually secure a date, add your details from the dropdown menus and move to the calendar portion. It gives you dates within a 2-week range, but often says there are no appointments.
The hack is to input the date range yourself – as in manually type in the dates, which will then present a number of available slots outside the presented calendar. Once this loads, pick a time that suits you. Do not use the calendar as it mostly does not work.
I believe you can only secure a date once your payment has gone through so be sure to approve the payment first in order to select a date to visit the FNB in Somerset road.
Once you’ve managed to do these steps the service at the bank is really awesome! I didn’t know the parking was cash only so do yourself a favour and withdraw money at the FNB ATM in order to exit Souvreign Quay.
Collecting Your Passport
Home Affairs will pop you SMSes as your passport details are submitted. You are required to collect in person as they take your fingerprints when you collect your new passport. It literally took 3 weeks, possibly 4 at the most.
SMS 1 – Submission: 13th August 2021
SMS 2 – Ready: 11th October 2021
SMS 3 – Collected: 15th October 2021
I now have a lovely, brand new Proudly South African passport for the next 10 years, YAY!
Good luck, happy travels and don’t forget, “Got the Passports?”
Good luck to everyone! It’s a great service if you can get it right, but can be frustrating if their website is down (please don’t contact me if it is! I don’t work in IT lol I was just trying to be helpful with this post).
Happy travels and, don’t forget, got the passports? 🙂
You are amazing – honestly, I can’t understand why everything is made to be so difficult. Did you find a way to “print” the documents since the email says we must take a printed version of the barcoded document – which, to my knowledge, does not exist on anything I have currently clicked :/ *grumbles*
I did! And it was one of the most stressful parts!!
I’m on MAC, so I think I downloaded the form and opened it in Adobe – NOT in the browser.
When opening in Adobe it helped me print. In saying that, both my hubby & I printed our docs
and both times they never asked for them. So you can take the chance but I personally just try to
cover myself as much as possible (returning for small mistakes is not on my to do list!).
Good luck 🙂
Thank you for this!! I have also managed to finally get a booking after 5 months ! And now am stumbling with the barcoded Application Confirmation. When you say you downloaded the form – where / which tab did you access in the first place to download anything?
Anything I go to or click on only really gives me an option to edit or save (which I obviously do not want to do at fear of messing with anything after finally managing to get a booking.) Sorry if I am being blonde!
Hey Mel,
So sorry, but I really don’t know! It seems things have changed a bit since I did it.
The edit & save is just how far along you are in the process I think.
Everything in the post is what I saw/experienced, not sure about the changes, sorry!
I am also stuck on that, I cannot see anywhere to download the barcoded application. Try the Home Affairs representative at your bank branch that you’ve booked your appointment at – ask them where to find the downloaded form.
You dont need it. Just have the ref numbers they send you
Thank you for these very helpful tips. Clarification about the FNB branch saved us from going to Portside yesterday. The barcoded Application Confirmation was an enigma. Couldn’t locate it anywhere to download. So a call to Home Affairs’ helpline, which was surprisingly helpful, explained we only needed to take the reference number along. But the home affairs’ official didn’t even ask for it.
We arrived on time but had to wait an hour for home affairs’ officials to arrive!! So what should’ve been a time saving exercise took us 1 hr &40 mins.
Thanks so much for your note Tarryn.
I also had to wait an hour or so, but I still think it’s better than sitting in the Wynberg queue for 6 hours
like to we use to have to do! Hope your collection is a lot more easy 🙂
Just wanted to comment on this – I phoned Home Affairs and the lady said I must just bring the booking reference number ECH-xxxxxxxxxx, because you can’t print the document out.
Hi D, fabulous, I will do that, thanks for the update.
Thank you so much, been stuck at this barcoded eHomeAffairs “Application Confirmation”.
Hi 👋,
The payment is not coming through to my Payments for approval. I called the bank (FNB) and they told me that there’s nothing they can do on their side, I just have to wait for the notification to come through from DHA. It’s been days, no notification.
How did you wait before you received the notification?
Hey Mthunzi,
The first time it took a month to get right as I didn’t actually know where I had to approve the payment.
The second time I think it took a few hours, maybe, at the most…
Wish I could help you more but all I can do is suggest you check you have actually requested the payment notification
and then just wait for it 🙁
It’s actually under the e-filing tab in your on-line banking profile. It will only show during business hours.
YES this comment saved me, payment was in my e-filing tab on FNB!
Also thanks to this article for the tip about ‘putting in your own dates thing’ in the right format (i.e. 2022-10-03).
Happy days! Glad you got there in the end 🙂
I had the same problem, this is where it’s supposed to be! I’m praying that the authors of this guide update it accordingly, because this caused me a massive headache
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll delete this guide now as things have clearly changed too much for it to be relevant.
Glad you got sorted out. All the best!
Oh, no! Please don’t delete this guide, it’s only a minor change and everything else is great!
Oh! When you said you were praying and I had caused you major issues it sounded like my work here was done!
Definitely didn’t go out my way to share my experience to make things more complicated haha!
Not at all! Praying you update it and praying you delete it are NOT the same thing at all 🙂
Hi, thank you so much for helping for this far! This is the most informative page I’ve found. However, I’m seriously struggling getting a date even I manually input the date. I’ve tried inputting a date outside the presented calendar as well and it’s the same no time slots available message. Is there anything else I could try?
Hi Keith, I’m having the same problem with getting a booking date. I tried inputting the dates manually, still no luck. How did you get around it? Any tips please?
I’m having the same problem too! Very frustrating since I’ve made the payment already and completed all the other steps
Thanks for a great post. Just wondering besides the MAC you used…. was there a specific type of software needed to open the “Form”??
I’ve had an online profile from before and can see my previous applications but when trying to create a new one the form frame is blank… I’ve given it plenty time to come up but it doesn’t at all. I thought it may be DHA trying to avoid people using the online portal. I’ve also tried Chrome and Edge. #frustrated
Hi Belinda,
To my knowledge you can’t have more than 1 application open.
So you need to cancel your existing one if you want to start again.
Are you wanting to start again because you can’t make the payment? Just curious.
I used Adobe and I downloaded the form and opened it in Adobe – NOT in the browser.
Hope this helps!
Meg
Hey Meg! Thanks for this super helpful post. I’ve managed to get to the payment part but wondering how long it took for your payment request to reflect on FNB? I’ve been hanging tight for about an hour now but nothing has come through. I’ll keep checking though but your post has helped me so far. This process is so cryptic.
Hey Ntombi! I actually didn’t know how long as first as it took me weeks to figure out how to pay!! But then when we did my hubby’s passport I think it was pretty immediate. So I think just double check you are looking on desktop and in the right place 🙂
Which reference do we search for? The one emailed, or the one reflected with the “Bank Acknowledgment Received”? I’ve had to cancel “payment” as it was still pending more than a month later. The other information provided has been helpful.
I’m not sure if Ntombi will get your response Gadija.
If you have cancelled your payment then ensure you start a new one otherwise you will have an application just sitting there
not progressing. I also cancelled (as I thought something was wrong, meanwhile I just had to approve on FNB site).
So resubmit payment and then immediately go to FNB to approve it; that’s what I did on my second payment attempt and it worked.
Thanks for this. After battling for three weeks with the (failed) Standard Bank process for paying DoHA, via their ‘My Bills’ feature, I opened an account with FNB and had my biometrics appointment within 24 hours. Your guidance, especially wrt the slow loading of the DoHA site when trying to book an appointment, was invaluable.
A further tip, based on my experience: making the appointment for the biometrics failed to load during several attempts during the day, but worked pretty swiftly at 21:30.
Thanks so much Norman! Appreciate the extra tips as well as, yes, the appointment page has been down on numerous occasions so I’m sure that tip will help others. Meg & AJ
Thanks very much for the very helpful article! Note that the website reference in the article is incorrect/no longer works. It has changed to:
https://ehome.dha.gov.za/eHomeAffairsV3/
Thanks Gavin! I have updated my link.
Thanks so much for the help – this was brilliant! The trick of not using the calendar was brilliant, well done on finding that (This perplexed me for ages)!
All the best.
Chees
You’re very welcome John! Glad it could help.
Hi Meg
Thanks for your wonderful advice and tips! And for taking the time to help others
I’ve completed the form, but the very last part at the bottom where you have to input the date and select place – that part of the form is not allowing me to enter the date or place.
Did you have any issues with that part of the form?
Hi Julie,
I think maybe that’s happening as you have not approved your payment…not 100% sure!
Hi, unfortunately I wasn’t able to even get to the payment stage or uploading of forms, without being able to complete the declaration at the bottom. So am now stuck!
Do you have an ad blocker on? That can also impact how the site displays…
Not that I know of, but I’ll try check that out.
Otherwise, I remember my husband struggling to get it to reflect and I think he just kept clicking on all the boxes (that maybe don’t look clickable) and it ended up working lol Was too long ago for me to recall now, unfortunately, sorry!
Hi Julie,
You dont need to complete the declaration
Thanks for the awesome information. Can someone advise if you can make an appointment for your finger prints for a Saturday or Sunday?
Hi Natasjia,
I’m not 100% sure but to my knowledge it’s only Monday – Friday.
Quick update – I finally managed to complete the whole process, but learnt a few tips along the way!
1. Ignore the declaration section at the bottom – it doesn’t apply via the online application (would be nice if they just indicated that on the form)
2. If you’re really stuck, look up the contacts section – not the Office contacts, but the CONTACTS link right at the bottom of the home page.
Clicking on that brings a menu of contacts – select BANK BRANCHES, and then search for your bank under the Contact Filter Search.
That will give you the name and contact details of the Home Affairs representative based at the participating banks. I used the email address for my query at the FNB Merchant Place branch, and it was answered that day.
I managed to make a booking by typing in a date range past the provided calendar date. That works. For example, the calendar only shows dates for two weeks, lets say from 9th Feb till 22 Feb. Inputting the dates manually 2022-02-09 then in the to field 2022-04-23 (up until April) actually shows the first available time slots after the initially displayed time slots on the calendar, i.e first available date shown was 23 Feb!
Thanks, Julie.
I’ve reached the declaration section on the ‘Form’ part of the application and have ignored it, but the application won’t allow me to move forward to the ‘Upload’ and ‘Payment’ sections.
Any advice on what you did to be able to upload docs and enter your bank details?
I had my appointment on Friday 28th. I also could not download or print the ‘barcoded application’. As it turned out, it was not asked for! Nor was I even asked to show my ID! The FNB Portside branch had me booked and were prepared for me, processing me smoothly.
It was a big pain trying to print that sheet (and they also didn’t ask me for it) so I will be thrilled if they do away with it!
Thanks for these very valuable tips! I have hit a snag right at the beginning with trying to register on the DHA website … I completed the form and now need an OTP as the final step. And the OTPs just do not come through. I’ve tried at least 8 times, yesterday and today. The hotline message is: “Sorry, the network is congested.” A phone number for enquiries about passports is not answered. Sigh. I guess I can only keep on trying. Anybody else had this problem?
Hi Annica, yes I had that problem many times, it’s so frustrating. I tried at all sorts of times, including at night before it worked – the site can be unworkably slow a lot of the time. Much patience required!
I have been stuck for a couple of weeks on the “submit potion” step 2 of a passport application before the upload document step. I keep getting an object error messaged. Nothing worked. Any advice?
If you have an ad blocker turned on then turn it off as it impacts the site.
Other than that, sorry, no idea and I can’t keep reapplying to troubleshoot ideas (unfortunately) haha!
Good luck 🙂
I Have made payment… Now when I type in the date range and try to book, no available time slots. Even tried to put a year but no success with FNB Portside. Anyone experience this?
Yes, I had exactly this problem! Turns out it was their dodgy website having issues, and not that there were no appointments available. I tried again the next morning and then it showed appointments as available and I was able to book without hassle.
Thank you! Will keep trying throughout the day. Was thinking I would need to go to Home Affairs Office, so much for convenience… Hope I get it sorted soon.
I clicked the link on the Department of Home Affairs website and received a “The service is unavailable” response
Really great post, thanks so much for helping others!
I’ve completed the Form section, and reached the declaration section on the ‘Form’ part of the application and have ignored it, but the application won’t allow me to move forward to the ‘Upload’ and ‘Payment’ sections (it greys the links to those sections out).
Any advice on what you did to be able to upload docs and enter your bank details?
I had that problem too, and it turned out to be the dodginess of the website in general! Much patience and retrying at different times required.
I did email the supervisor at FNB Merchant Place to ask about uploading docs, and she said to skip the uploading. But didn’t explain if she meant skip it completely, or don’t worry about it until the payment was done. Anyway, I did try again after my appointment was booked, and I was able to upload my ID, but do check the format it asks for, and it must be less than 2MB if I remember.
Ah okay, thanks so much Julie – I guess it just means continuing to try – so frustrating though as I’m sure you know!
If not too much trouble, do you perhaps have the email address for the FNB Merchant Place supervisor? I could only find the telephone number which goes to an automated system.
Thanks again.
Sure, I used:
Gertrude.Selepe@dha.gov.za
Much appreciated, thank you.
Hi There
Thanks for the great article, very helpful. I have however for the past couple weeks come stuck at the visit branch. Whenever I go to the drop down for province it only ever gives Eastern Cape, PE and Gauteng as an option (I am looking for Western Cape). I have reload the page and waited, tried on different PCs etc. but same issue. I mailed the hotline and they came back saying potentially the branch is not available in the dates but you cant even get to that step without putting the province in so they obviously dont know the issue.
Any tips or something you have come across to assist? Thanks.
Shaun Versfeld
THANK YOU for the hack regarding entering your own dates…wow, could these things be any more complicated? I think you should get a medal.
I also had the payment issues, as well as the “we cannot process your application because you already have an application open in the old system” – thank goodness people post their experiences and solutions.
out of interest, I was also informed that you can only choose to make a booking at a bank that matches the online banking platform you used – so eg if you paid with FNB, you can’t think ABSA is closer and you’ll go there – not happening.
Thanks again!
Never heard of that Nicky! Since this is an FNB service for FNB customers I definitely think you have to go to FNB.
Glad the article could help and happy travels!
I have been trying to make a booking for the past few days and it is still not working 🙁 Ive tried putting in my own dates ( not using the calender), still nothing. Is it possible to call the bank branch directly to make a booking?
No it’s not Valencia. I’ve heard the calendar as been offline due to being very busy or broken.
It may also only work during working hours, so maybe give that a go?
It’s been more than a week that I have released the R400 on the Standard Bank website for the passport application. It still shows “Formatted-ready to be sent” Without the E-Home affairs site showing that is has been paid, I can’t make an appointment. Anyone had the same experience?
Hi Annelie,
This is an FNB only service, as far as I’m aware.
Best to ring Home Affairs to enquire about Standard Bank requests.
Have had months of frustration. Site would not accept my ID and Password. Finally this morning Site told me my Password had been blocked and I must apply for a RESET password. I did this and eventually a new password was sent by email. I tried that and again I received the message of wrong Password. Should one be giving time to let the 2 branches of the website catch up with each other ?
Huge frustration as all this is done early in the morning or at night when website less busy ?
Be very grateful for any tips as this Password only lasts for 24 hours. Thank you.
So sorry to hear of your frustrations. Unfortunately, I’m just a random person who shared how I got mine done.
I can only suggest that if you had an ad blocker active on your browser, that you turn it off as that often affects the service.
Hi Prue, did you win eventually?
If not, are you applying from within SA? You could actually visit one of the Home Affairs staff at the bank branches – they are generally quite helpful.
If you’re applying from outside SA, look up the contacts section on the Home Affairs website – not the Office contacts, but the CONTACTS link right at the bottom of the home page.
Clicking on that brings a menu of contacts – select BANK BRANCHES, and then search for your bank under the Contact Filter Search.
That will give you the name and contact details of the Home Affairs representative based at the participating banks.
At one stage I got stuck and couldn’t get to the next stage of the application so I emailed the supervisor. Seemed like they had to release it from their side before I could get to the next part of the form.
Good luck!
Hi. I just completed my booking, and got an email confirming that it’s 3 May 2022. All of the above, especially the advice from MEG & AJ was invaluable – at times I was frustrated, but found the exact solution by wading through the advice and replies. I started yesterday, and somehow, through google search, I found GTP!!! My sincere appreciation to MEG & AJ for creating such an extremely useful, and functional facility – judging by the comments, I’ve been spared weeks, or possibly months of heartache.
Best regards. Ray (Bellville)
Hi Ray, so happy we could help. As you mentioned, the greater community has been super helpful too as they have continued to try apply long after we received our new passports! Hopefully everyone can get it right and take a little mosey around our site too. All the best, happy travels and before you go, “Got the passports?” 🙂
Hi Ray.
Do you have any insight at how you managed to get available dates on the booking page?
I too, have scoured all the advice here and tried every trick to reveal any available dates, even extending the date range as far as a whole year out of frustration, to no avail. I am travelling in august of this year though.
i consider myself pretty tech-savvy however this just blows my mind….
Any advice welcomed, thanks!
Hi there 🙂
This article has been very useful, thank you. I have been entering my booking dates manually but I am not winning.
I have been struggling to set a booking date and put up to 12 months ahead and not a single date is available…
Does anyone know if there is something that I am doing wrong or if there is something else I can do?
Hi Adelle
Did you find a solution? I have been having the same problem. I have manually put in the dates for a year in advance for every single available branch. Nothing!
Thanks
Hugo
After struggling for weeks with the booking part, I finally got this right and there is some clarification to be made about the “hack”.
When you are manually entering dates, makes sure your date range doesn’t exceed 14 days. I had been keeping my start date set for today and looking ahead months!
Thanks for the updated tip Wayne!
Thx. This has been a great help, and the Hack worked. One question. Where do I find my completed barcoded form on DHA. I can’t seem to locate it on their site.
Sorry Jess, I can’t recall offhand! But it was something I downloaded as far as I can recall.
But I’m not sure if you even need it for the appointment – please scroll through the comments for some updates.
Yes, from what i have heard you don’t need it, just the reference numbers they email you after booking
Thx. I’ll contact the bank beforehand to confirm. I do have the reference number.
Hi Jeff, they ask you for your ID and reference number when you first arrive at the bank queue, and then you also have to show your reference number when you get inside for your biometrics. Print the reference confirmation out when it’s emailed to you. That should be all you’ll need.
Thanks so much for posting a blog page like this one. It’s amazing. Someone should actually start an entire blog site just for people trying to get government stuff done, like the best places to queue etc.
Having said that, I haven’t had any luck, the booking of dates just doesn’t work, even when done manually, in two week intervals. I think it’s luck of the draw to some degree. I read somewhere that it’s best to try this at 6am, so that will be my last shot before I surrender to join the horrifying queues.
So sorry! Maybe it’s all booked out now 🙁
I think it’s also maybe only available during working hours – the ability to secure a time.
REitterating the need to only have a 2-week search period when booking, starting from tomorrow
I might be very ignorant, but can anyone help me to sign? On my computer screen that is?
If it’s the application form you’re trying to sign, don’t worry about it. I queried this and was told by DHA to ignore that section of the online application form.
Thank you for responding and for the blog. It is very helpful. It would not allow me to fill in the place of signature or accept it If I tried to submit and hence my question. When I tried again yesterday it allowed mw to submit and there was no problem.
I’m so glad you asked about the signature as that is where I am stuck. No ‘live’ space to fill in any signature or name so nothing will happen. Now I’m trying to save to revisit tomorrow and it says it can’t save at this time. So I’m giving up and going to bed. Will try again tomorrow. And this is for technophobe husband, not even for me!
It’s not you, it’s them, I promise. I’m a software engineer and I found this process to be a ridiculously complicated and frustrating experience, I was extremely grateful to find this guide!
Like everything else Government, the DHA did not employ experienced software engineers to do this!!
Hi Rose – I am not sure where you are now but I will relate my experience as it could help you if you are still stuck and it will help others. Since it asks for a signature, one expects the software to permit one to sign, but signature is not possible. One must just try and submit it without the signature. My answer is, make sure everything is completed apart from the signature and keep trying to submit. In my case it eventually accepted it. You then have to pay where the system works well.
The other puzzling point is making the appointment. The system gives you a date range eg for FNB the Glen. If you try and select a time within the range it will say something like not available or try another time and date. The key is to select a date and time about two weeks after the given range. I followed the blog’s advice on this and it worked. For example, the range was from 1st to 12 June, I selected first 20th June – it gave the same answer. I then selected 30th June and it worked. The answer is to select successive dates after the range given and eventually you will come to the time when appointments are available.
I had only my ID for the appointment and I travelled 350 km for it. They first told me my appointment was the next day!! I insisted and then they told me it was 30th but I was an hour early (which was true). They nevertheless accepted me and believe it or not – 5 minutes later I was already at the Spur drinking coffee. It took less than 5 minutes. Clearly they do not saturate their time with appointments!! I asked if they worked for the Bank or the department. They work for the department. About 5 days later I got a text to say my passport was ready for collection. I hope my experience helps you and others. Thanks to the Blog organisers.
Hi there , you said in the post it took 3-4 weeks , but the dates are from 13th aug to 11 oct . That is technically 7-8 weeks instead of 3-4 . Did you maybe do the application in September instead of August ? Apologies for the silly question . I have an appointment @ greenpoint for the 11th August myself .So I am hoping it will be done and ready by the middle of September , Because i have a trip overseas coming in October . Thanks again for the amazing blog post , it helped a ton and I really appreciate it .
Hey Dylan! My pleasure. So, not sure about the date ranges now but it only took me a few weeks. This was probably a year ago or so back and things are WAY more mental now. So not 100% sure, sorry 🙁 It took a few weeks to get an appointment and then only a few weeks to get the actual passport, not months. But, as I say, that was during lockdown still when things weren’t mental 🙂 Sorry I can’t be more clear!
Dylan, you can probably reckon on much less time for the actual issue of the passport. I had my appointment on 30th June 2022 and I got the notification that it was ready for collection on 6th July 2022. My appointment was however in Gauteng.
This was so helpful. Thank you!!!!!!
Comments are super useful too, hope you succeed!
I just want to update here on my experience in case it helps someone else. I’ve been trying to get an appointment at FNB since May and even putting in future dates didn’t work. So I gave up and drove to Home Affairs with my twins (they are the ones needing the passports), but they were in load shedding and of course closed as a result. So I drove to FNB on the off chance they would see us, and it was seriously jam packed in there. It looked like home affairs! The woman told me that they were going to open more appointments on the Monday morning for 15 August, and so on the Monday morning I got up at 5 am and after a number of frustrating login attempts (no OTP coming through), I eventually got an appointment slot.
I believe that some Home Affairs branches are now scheduling appointments themselves very efficiently, so it might not even be worth going down the bank branch route anymore. It certainly was exceptionally complicated and not worth it for us. I would say probably it’s taken a good 6 hours or more of my time, and without this blog I would never have found a way to make it work at all.
Thanks so much for this kind update Marcia!
Hope your twins managed to get into the system and their passports are on the way!
hi thank you for your help
im at the uploading stage on the home affairs website yet there is no button or tab to click that says “upload files” is there any way to help?
thank you
Sorry DS, I don’t know off hand. It has been some months since I received my passport/wrote this post.
Hi there, many thanks for this. The appointment date hack is a lifesaver!
Not sure if it’s been asked, but what were you required to bring to your appointment besides the booking ref? TIA
Hi Adrian,
I can’t really recall, off hand, to be honest as it’s been some months since I received my passport.
I think I just brought my ID, old passport and the booking form, just in case.
Do you know if it’s possible to register on the Home Affairs website with an overseas phone number? We no longer live in S.A (but still have an FNB account and will be renewing our passports in S.A in October), but the site won’t allow me to confirm my cell number for Step 3 of the account registration process (for the OTP). When I click on “Send New OTP” the sites says “Please Wait” for ages and then it just brings me back to the same page
Hey Janine,
I don’t know but by the sounds of what you’re describing, I’m assuming the answer is no 🙂
The registration does not seem to work with Google Chrome. Firefox gets further – but I am now at the point where the OTPs are not arriving.
I am a South African living the UK. My existing SA passport expires in January 2023. I shall be visiting Cape Town In Jan/Feb 2023. I am trying to book a passport slot at FNB in Green Point but absolutely no dates are available up until Dec 2023. The bank’s telephone system doesn’t seem to be working! All application forms are complete and payment has been made. Should I just go to the Green Point branch of FNB and hope for the best? I keep my SA cellphone with me so that I can be sent a pin code by home affairs
Sorry Rob, but I really don’t know. This is a private blog so no one “official” can respond to you.
Once you’re in SA though, hopefully getting SMSes and stuff will be a bit easier and maybe things will fall into place?
Alternatively, you can do it the old school style and go sit in the Home Affairs queue since time may be short for you here?
Rob, you can still achieve this booking online, it’s unlikely that every slot is full. When you get to the booking section remember to only search the calendar by manually inputting the dates for 2 week increments at a time. If you start searching 1 – 14 Jan then your next search should be 15 – 29 Jan
When I tried bookings, the actual available slots were 15 to 20 days further away than the system reflected a time sequence. In other words, the system would give May to June, when bookings were only available in July. If you tried to book for July, it gave you a slot. I think they are confusing 2022 with 2023, as there wasn’t anything like year’s difference! My suggestion is, call the department and ask directly when the next slots are available. Something I discovered when I visited the “Bank” was that you were attended to by Department of Home Affairs officials. I asked them directly, who do you work for? My suggestion is, call home affairs, tedious as it is, and discuss it with them.
Thanks so much this helped immensely. The Address is updated now and states Greenpoint. I applied on the 3rd January 2023 and have been waiting for my barcoded letter which is still not here nearly a month later. But is apparently an issue with their system so you don’t need the form at the moment, just your ID. I emailed them and took 3 weeks to reply. There is no update on the system in this regard. I have an appointment thanks to your advice. The system was much quicker at the start of the day too than midday and afternoon. Very slow and painful, but your advice really helped. Thank you
Thank you for the great advice, made booking and a week later received notification that my passport is being send to the branch. Do I need to make a booking for collection of my passport as well?
Emerging from all of this seem to be three fundamental points:
1. Ask for a date at least two weeks outside the date range presented.
2. Don’t be daunted by the request for a signature – it is not required.
3. Stand your ground when the officials question your appointment – they are DoHA officials, not bank employees – they incorrectly did that with me, expecting me to come back the next day when there were no other persons waiting.
Thanks you once again. All the pointers were very helpful and still relevant in October 2023. In and out within 20min with 10 people ahead of me!
Amazing! So glad you were successul. Renewing early was the best thing I did during the pandemic!!
Hello, I just want to say that even though I applied for and received my passport last year April. I needed to renew my son’s passport now and I was struggling to get through the application process successfully. I found your comprehensive article and it was really useful, so thanks so much for putting this up. I’m sure it has helps a LOT of people!!
Thank you for being kind enough to leave this note Jane. I’m really happy it could help you 🙂