Renewing Malaysian Passport

Why do we need a passport?

To get out of the country. And to get in the country.

Renewing a passport is not hard these days and will only take few hours if you manage to pay the renewing fee before 2.30 pm at any working day. Honestly, I have had the slightest idea of renewing a passport until I googled and read a couple sites.

1) http://www.imi.gov.my/eng/perkhidmatan/im_PasportMsia.asp

2) http://www.lifeinkl.com/2008/05/10/how-to-renew-your-passport/

nowadays everything can be googled and i wonder how large is the server for google? so far google is the best search engine and never failed to deliver.

so back to the real topic, the following are what I needed to get my passport done.

• a photostat copy of myKad
• myKad
• 2 photographs of applicant measuring 3.5 cm X 5.0 cm
• cash (50 or 100 ringgit notes)
• old passport (if any)

since I have an old passport, they insisted that I go to KIPPAS (kios pembaharuan passport), a machine which I was reluctant because machine is a machine and I can't talk with machines. But they insisted and so I gave in. Luckily the machine was not being hard on me. Everything was done in about 15 minutes. Here's what i vaguely remember on the machine's request.

1. select your language
2. insert your old passport in the slot and press continue
3. insert your myKad
4. place your right thumb on the scanner
5. select 300 or 600 pages of passport
6. insert your cash one at a time
7. enter you height in cm
8. enter your phone number
9. insert the following in the provided envelope (enter your particulars on the envelope):
   - a photocopy of myKad
   - a passport photo of yourself (blue background and recent)
   - old passport
10. insert the envelope in the slot
11. please take the receipt
    - the receipt tells when and where to collect your passport
    - if the receipt is printed after 2.30pm, then your collection time will be the following day after 9 am
    - if the receipt is printed before 2.30 pm, then it is possible to collect the new passport on the same day
    - therefore, the following information from the imigration website is misleading:

It is a promise to deliver a new passport in 2 hours time if the payment is received before 3.30pm. I believe the promise is not applicable for processes made through the Kiosk but true only for application made through the counter. This is because your application from the Kiosk will only be collected by the respective staff at an interval. Additionally, the counter is at the 2nd floor while the kiosk is at the 1st floor.

So i received the receipt from the kiosk telling me to come and collect my new passport the next day. The following day i went straight to 2nd floor and approached counter 16, i gave my receipt and got a number eventhough i am the only one waiting. So I sat and waited. i saw that the guy behind the counter typed something and went to the next room to get something which i suspected was my passport. So after about 10 minutes my number was called and i was told to sign on several places and scanned my right thumb on the scanner. After signing behind my new passport, voila! i was set to go.

i was happy of course, if only i did not missed my exit to the Pusat Bandar Damansara or PBD lane i could have gotten back much earlier. but nevertheless, it's so trivial and need not to over react.