They will have to wait up to six times longer for their documents and travel up to 80 miles for face-to-face interviews at passport offices under changes paving the way for the government’s ID cards.

At present people can apply by post and get their passports in as little as a week. From March 26, however, the leaked memo reveals all first-time applicants will have to be interviewed in person.

By 2008-9 this requirement will be extended to all those seeking to renew their passports, causing millions greater inconvenience by forcing them to travel to one of 69 new passport offices for face-to-face interviews.

The changes are being introduced in preparation for ID cards, which will include biometric data such as fingerprints, eye or facial scans.

Tony Blair has hailed the scheme as the centrepiece of efforts to combat terrorism, illegal immigration and crime. Critics, however, said the memo confirmed their fears that it would be an expensive and bureaucratic system.

The 22-page memo, written for the Home Office’s Identity and Passport Service (IPS), admits the average waiting time is likely to rise by a factor of six from the one-week minimum.

“The speed at which passports are to be issued to first-time applicants will be slower owing to the application-by-interview process,” it says. “The IPS is recommending that first-time applicants should allow four to six weeks for the process rather than the current 10 days for standard applications and one week for urgent applications via the fast track service.”

The memo, from the Central Office of Information, is addressed to advertisers who might bid for the contract for an information campaign to warn people of the rules.

Describing the “communication challenges” facing the marketing of the scheme it reveals there will be “greater inconvenience for some applicants in terms of having to attend an interview, travel, etc”.

With 69 centres planned for the whole of Britain, many people, largely in rural areas, will have to make round trips of up to 80 miles to attend their interviews.

“At least 97% of the UK population will have an office within 20 miles (urban areas) or 40 miles (remote, rural areas) of their address,” the memo says.

Critics say that means millions of people who do not live in cities or large towns will have to make a round trip of up to 80 miles just to get their passport.

The Tories, Liberal Democrats and civil liberties groups oppose the ID card scheme on the grounds of costs and because it is more evidence that Britain has become “ a surveillance society”.

Their fears will be heightened by the memo in which Martin Godfrey, a senior COI official, admits: “First-time applicants will experience a more complicated, longer application process involving a potentially intrusive personal interview.”

The COI memo suggests officials are concerned that the new passport offices could be swamped. “IPS does not want to encourage the general public to turn up at these offices unless they have made an appointment,” it states. The aim of the advertising campaign will be to “prevent excess urgent demand for passports” and “reduce the impact of seasonal peaks”.

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