With borders reopened the pent-up Malaysians who were refrained from traveling for nearly 2 years have been anxious to explore again but first they had to get their passports or apply for renewal.
Preparing for the anticipated surge in applications, the Home Ministry instructed the agencies involved to make processes easier and quicker in order for Malaysians to get their passports in a less hassle manner. Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the Malaysian Immigration Department issued as many as 2.8 million passports since post-Covid-19, which is a four-fold increase.
He said of that number, 45 percent applied for passports online which only took three minutes, following which applicants could collect their passports after two to three days.
“Everyday, immigration officers have to contend with crowds and is also facing congestion but not at all of its offices since the end of the movement control order and the opening of the border, for example in Perlis the immigration department issues 20 to 30 passports every day but in Damansara, Shah Alam, and Kelana Jaya, we issue many times over… where there is congestion.
“Since post-Covid-19, we have issued almost 2.8 million passports, and not a single one of the applications has been rejected, of which 45 percent applied online while the rest appeared in person at the immigration office. Of that number, 40 percent have no plans to leave the country while the rest travel,” Saifuddin Nasution said.
The Immigration Department is said to introduce a pilot project to overcome congestion at the passport issuing offices which are always crowded by only opening online applications and subsequent passport collection because the rationale is that there is widespread internet coverage in the area.
“This pilot project is being fine-tuned and we will implement it after everything is finalised for starters, it will involve the passport issuing offices in the Klang Valley which are often congested locations and it may then be expanded to other places
“We have 77 passport-issuing offices across the country and since 21 of them experienced severe congestion, we had to increase working hours including Saturdays and Sundays. This helped ease the congestion at the said locations,” he said.
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