‘The number of people applying for an international passport soared this year,’ Irina Pestryakova of Yekaterinburg passport and visa office said to UrBC.

‘We are simply unable to process all the applications in one month’s time (the legally defined wait time), so people have to wait for two to three weeks longer to get their passports,’ she noted.

In the meantime, some local travel agents report one sometimes has to wait for as long as three months before one’s passport is actually delivered.