I recently noticed my passport had expired, so I decided to get a new one in case I’ll need to leave the EU. I was dreading there would be an awful amount of bureaucracy and a need to queue at the police station for hours to get the passport.

After a short googling, I found out however, that none of this is required. The police website pointed me to go to a photographer first to get an up-to-date photo for my new passport. After the photo was taken, it was automatically uploaded to the police database and I was given an id that I would need in my application. After that the rest of the procedure was a breeze and I just needed to fill in an application on the website.

Now I’ll just need to wait a week and after that I will be able to pick up my new passport from the closest post office. The total cost for my passport was 44 euros for the passport plus 15 euros for getting a new photo.

At least to me, this was a big indication of what the public sector can do. It is often seen as lagging private companies in efficiency, but this whole procedure took less than half an hour. The public sector doesn’t need to stay in the era of hand-written forms, but it is also possible to embrace the possibilites of modern technology.

These kind of moments make me happy for living in Finland. Getting a new passport doesn’t take weeks, doesn’t cost 100+ dollars and the application process takes less than an hour.

This can also be seen in the attitude towards the public sector. When it works well, it doesn’t need to be seen as a nuisance as it often is in many countries. Rather, the goal is to make dealing with the necessary bureaucracy as easy as possible.