According to Per Engström, the police officer appointed to deal with Sweden’s passport crisis, the wait to receive passports should start to shrink from July now that the machine, based in Finland, is back in operation.

“We now have a backlog with waiting times of up to 30 days, and we are not going to see any change when it comes to the times in June, but hopefully we will see an improvement in July,” she said. 

Engström recommends that those seeking to travel within Europe instead renew their national ID cards, which work as travel documents in the EU; EES and Schengen countries, as these take only about five days to make. 

READ ALSO: What’s behind the long wait to renew Swedish passports?

Those seeking new or replacement passports in Sweden have been facing enormous delays, with passport appointment times not available for some 22 weeks, according to a police press release from last month. 

According to the Swedish police, once a passport application has been completed, it now takes an average of 5-6 weeks for the passport to be delivered.