Passport to happiness...??

Leilani is now not only 2 years and 3 months old, but officially today, she can travel internationally. Yup - we had just returned from the Immigrations Office to get her passport done. And thanks to the recent governmental cleanup on redtapes and all the other 'official procastinations', the whole process took only 2 hours. Alhamdulillah...



Actually, Lissa had long wanted to renew her passport which expired in 2006, so since we're all on leave, we planned to have it all done today. But of course, the keyword here is PLAN, if not, I'm sure we would still be camping on those uncomfortable blue colored seats waiting for our queue numbers to be called...



So for those who wish to make a swift, hassle free visit to the Immigrations Office to have their passports renewed or to make a new one, I am glad to share our strategy below:

1. RESEARCH: Find out and visit the Immigrations Branch that may have the least customers. After much interviews and past experiences, we had ours done at the Shah Alam branch (level 2, PKNS Kompleks). Other favoured branches would be the Subang branch and the Sri Rampai branch in Setapak. Although we got ours in 2 hours, it was done manually (over the counter). It would have been faster I think if the Shah Alam branch had the much talked about passport renewal auto kiosk...
2. GO EARLY!!! The phrase 'early bird gets the worm' is really true here. When we arrived at the office in Shah Alam at 0730hrs we were 7th in line. And we had to do the passport manually, as the office did not have the new machine yet. I think we would have managed to get i done faster if the machine was available...
3. BE PREPARED - yup!! The scouts motto!!....Before going, we had already printed and filled up the form (Form A. IM.42 - Pin 1/1997) which is downloadable from the official website at: http://www.imi.gov.my/eng/perkhidmatan/im_PasportMsia.asp and had all the necessary photos taken. So, to renew a passport, make sure you have: 2 passport sized photos, a copy of your IC (make 2 just in case!) your original old passport and IC. To make a new one, you'll need the same, except of course, you won't have an old passport (duh!)
4. SHOW ME THE MONEY!! For a new passport or a renewal, it'll set you back by about RM300 (32 pages) and for infants below 12 yrs old, it will cost you RM150 each.
5. PATIENCE...I think 2 hours is better than having to wait more than a day for a passport. Bring a newspaper along to while away the time, or simply entertain yourself by watching as the the crowd begins to grow in the small, cramped office...

So there you have it....some tips for future travellers....

All the best and Bon voyage!!!