Italians living in São Paulo continue to face difficulties in scheduling passport appointments at the Italian Consulate General, one of the largest in the world in terms of applicants. The agency opened 840 slots this Thursday (26) through the experimental system “Click Day”, but the number is well below demand.
According to an investigation by the Italianism, the vacancies were distributed between July 17 and August 1, with 70 appointments per day. Then, the consulate released more dates from August 4 to 8, adding around 350 additional appointments. Even so, the total represents less than half of the vacancies available in the old model, which had daily appointments and allowances for cancellations.
“Click Day” was launched in January 2025, on an experimental basis, with the aim of combating intermediaries who sold appointments. The proposal was to gather all the vacancies for a month in a single day, to make the process transparent.
In practice, however, many complain that the new format does not solve the problem and even makes access difficult for those who try it alone.
Complaints pile up
On the Consulate's official Facebook profile, users report frustration and anger. "You have to admit that Click Day didn't work," wrote Sergio Marcondes, who advocates returning to the previous system. For him, daily vacancies and slots throughout the day were more efficient and inhibited agents.
Suzana Marranghello said she had tried to schedule an appointment five times, but without success. She claims that there are digital mechanisms that prevent ordinary citizens from accessing the system. “It is clear that there is artificial intelligence blocking access. It would be better to have a line of humans at the consulate, or via email. It is absurd for the system to be running on robots,” she criticized.
Paula Lilian compared the service in São Paulo to that of Lisbon, where she was able to schedule and obtain her passport without queuing. “Here we only need to join the scheduling queue, and a few days later we receive the date and confirm it. São Paulo should have a similar system, much more practical,” she said.
Re Marttinez summed up the general feeling: “Another day wasted! It’s impossible this way!”
In practice, it is not just one day: those who cannot find a place must wait a month until the consulate releases new dates all at once.
System crashes other consulates
In addition to the difficulty in São Paulo, users report that “Click Day” interferes with the operation of other consulates. The scheduling system, Prenot@mi, is used worldwide. With excessive simultaneous access, the site becomes unstable, causing slowness and crashes in representations outside São Paulo.
“Yesterday, for example, it messed up Curitiba. A slot opened up, but nobody could access it. At 19 pm, which is midnight in Rome, other consulates also released slots, but it wasn't possible to use them. When São Paulo congests the system, everyone is unable to access it,” reported a user who asked to remain anonymous.
In the old model, access was distributed throughout the day, avoiding traffic peaks.
“The system supports distributed access, just like all consulates do. When it was a daily service in São Paulo, it didn’t crash.” And he warns: “Today, no one knows where the cancellations go,” he said.
According to him, the only thing that has improved is for those renewing their passports, as the queue is shorter and there is less competition. “Otherwise, everything has gotten worse. Those who try to access another consulate also lose out. Yesterday, many people had their accounts blocked because they tried unsuccessfully to access them,” he said.
The Consulate has not yet commented on adjustments or new formats for the coming months.
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