Passports Officer – LE3 – London

Contract: Fixed Term – Until 29 December 2023

Full-Time: 36.75 hours per week

Salary: £32,136 per annum

The Australian High Commission, London is seeking a highly talented and motivated individual to undertake Passports work within our Consular and Passports section.

About the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

The role of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is to advance the interests of Australia and Australians internationally. This involves strengthening Australia’s security, enhancing Australia’s prosperity, delivering an effective and high-quality overseas aid program and helping Australian travellers and Australians overseas.

The department provides foreign, trade and development policy advice to the Australian Government. DFAT also works with other Australian government agencies to drive coordination of Australia’s pursuit of global, regional and bilateral interests.

About the Australian Passports Office, London

The Passports Office at the Australian High Commission, London is a busy, high volume processing environment, providing passports services to Australian citizens in the UK. In accordance with the Australian Passport Act and the guidelines contained in the Online Passports Information (OPI) and the Consular Operations Handbook, and under the direction of the Passports Manager.

About the position

As a member of the Passports team under direction from the Passports Manager, this position assists with passport processing functions utilising the Australian Government specific passports operating systems and delivers high quality outcomes for clients by providing a prompt, efficient and professional service.

The key responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to:

• Process applications for new and replacement Australian travel documents, including:
  • Interview applicants and respond to counter enquiries, receipt payments for travel documents and complete daily financial reconciliations.
  • Prepare documentation, scan, enter data and crop photographs.
  • Follow up missing information and request new photos from applicants.
  • Print, perform quality assurance checks and dispatch the personalised travel document.
• Respond to telephone calls and written enquiries from applicants and members of the public.
• Contribute to comments on draft policies and procedures proposed by Canberra regarding relevant overseas passport operations.
• Contribute to Passports office administration including ordering stationery, shipping supplies, processing refunds, performing stocktakes and maintaining equipment.

Qualifications/Experience

• Ability to quickly attain a sound working knowledge of relevant guidelines, policies and legislation.
• Ability to work well under pressure in a busy environment while demonstrating attention to detail.
• Well-developed written communication skills for drafting correspondence to passport applicants.
• Strong interpersonal skills for building productive working relationships with clients and stakeholders in an objective, assertive and persuasive manner.
• Excellent communication and customer service skills to deal with all facets of client interaction and ability to have difficult conversations.
• Flexibility to adjust workload in respond to unforeseen events.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Please address each of the selection criteria for the role in the spaces provided on the application form. Drawing on your prior experience, please provide examples of where you have demonstrated the required competencies or transferrable skills.

The word limit is strictly 250 words per response. The panel will not assess responses that exceed the word limit.

A. Strong planning and organisational skills to manage multiple administrative tasks and priorities in a high volume, client-focussed environment with limited supervision.

B. Demonstrated ability to perform general administrative or processing activities, interpret and apply legislation, policies, guidelines and instructions.

C. Ability to build relationships and work effectively with other team members in a busy and demanding environment by demonstrating flexibility, reliability, adaptability, initiative and resourcefulness.

D. Excellent communication, interviewing and liaison skills including the ability to communicate empathetically, clearly and simply with people from diverse backgrounds in person, over the telephone and in writing.

E. Proficiency with Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel. High level of IT literacy with the ability to manage electronic documents and records management systems, ensuring on-going compliance with policy guidelines.

The Australian High Commission, London is seeking a highly talented and motivated individual to undertake Passports work within our Consular and Passports section.