What government services are available online? I am aware that it is now possible to order a police clearance. What else is available? Are they planning to expand the online offering?
Auntie’s answer: As you note, you can now fill out the form for a police clearance certificate from wherever your computer is. I wrote a recent column on that topic (see Apply online for police clearance) if you want any specific information on that.
As for what else you can do online, that is actually difficult to answer, but for a good reason. There is a long list of services available through the government’s e-services portal. You should note that some do not require pre-registration or authorisation; others need you to set up a free user account and some require a fee before you can access a service. To determine the requirements for a particular service, I suggest you read through the site’s FAQs.
While I can’t list every service, you can access through the portal, here is a sampling: order a birth certificate, search companies information, apply for a local scholarship, submit a land transfer form and search civil service jobs. For a complete list of services on the site click here.
According to the website, more services will be added “soon”, so you can check back periodically to see if the list has been updated.
I have used the online services to collect a police clearance. You have to scan your passport. They will have a copy of your passport number and full face picture. But you still have to bring your passport and drivers license to collect it, really????? I still don’t understand why a drivers license OR just look at the photo on the their computer to verify who you are. Seems a little too much ID’s for something that can be realized by just looking over the counter and checking a computer screen copy.
Thousands of people are processed as they walk onboard a Cruise ship by security by. A camera photo of the person who walks pass a scanner and shows immediately on a monitor and their photo id comes up. In a split second hundreds of people coming onboard are processed by homeland security system to make sure you suppose to be on this ship. Why do we keep going back to the stone age with computer technology????