Foreign Ministry to relocate office for attesting certificates, again

AMMAN — The Foreign Ministry plans to relocate its affiliated office for attesting certificates again since the building in Shmeisani, rented just a year ago, lacks parking lots and due to complaints by area residents. 

In early 2015, the Foreign Ministry moved the office for attesting certificates from the 1st Circle in Jabal Amman to the current premises on Salem Hindawi Street in the capital’s Shmeisani area, as the old one was found no longer suitable to serve the public.

Mowafaq Smeirat, head of the office, told The Jordan Times on Wednesday that the ministry is currently looking for another building, as residents of the relatively narrow street have complained of traffic jams caused by the lack of parking spaces.

The two-storey villa was rented for JD35,000 a year, according to a letter Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh sent to Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on November 13, 2014, requesting his approval to rent the premises.

On Wednesday morning, only one employee was serving a long queue of people at the office, although there were eight windows for this purpose. 

Khaled Kawthar, who was waiting to be served, said he was unhappy about standing in a queue for nearly 15 minutes because there was only one employee at the service desk. 

Smeirat said the office needs to be staffed with more employees, but insisted that the waiting time is still reasonable. 

But Tawfiq Abdullah, who wanted to have some documents attested, noted that clients would only have to wait for a few minutes if there were two more employees at the service windows.