Egyptian expatriates are caught in the crosshairs as Egypt works to modernize its passport process.

The International Civil Aviation Organization’s decision to halt the use of hand-written passports starting November 24th might have left many Egyptian expatriates in the lurch. The decision forces all member states including Egypt to replace older passports with machine-readable ones, according to Egyptian independent newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm .

It has caused a real problem not only for Egyptian expatriates who haven’t yet renewed their passports, but also for the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Ministry, as it struggles to cope with the overwhelming accumulation of application forms from Egyptians abroad.

As the deadline nears, many Egyptian expatriates who still haven’t replaced their passports face the threat of being deported from the countries where they currently reside. The head of the passports department Ashraf Hassan said this issue has caused the Foreign Affairs Ministry to double its working hours at the passports department, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Al-Masry Al-Youm reported that for the past 5 months the ministry has been completing 1,500 passports per day, as opposed to its previous rate of 600 passports per day.

Administrative official at the Egyptian Embassy in Jordan Mahmoud Helmy said that many Egyptians are to blame for the crisis, as he said the Egyptian Embassy has warned expatriates of ICAO’s 2015 deadline since 2011 and has urged them to replace their passports, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Guess the early bird does get the worm. Or passport, as the case may be.