One morning I went to the e-ID office in Valletta to apply for an e-ID for my daughter who currently resides in Australia.

From time to time she needs to assess government websites for certain services, like renewing her driving licence, passport etc.

Knowing Maltese bureaucracy, I went well prepared: power of attorney, photocopies of passport and ID, her particulars including her email address (which incidentally also incorporates her full name).

What I did not take was a passport sized photo. But that could easily be remedied later on. Imagine my surprise when I was informed that all these counted for nothing as she will have to call herself, personally, at the e-ID office to have her photo taken.

So my daughter, a Maltese citizen, is being deprived of her right for an e-ID until the time she returns to Malta having finished her assignment there. I am perplexed. The documents I took eliminated completely the possibility of fraud, so why the insistence that she will have to go personally to apply?

Joseph Grech

Gzira