Recently, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail announced that the Immigration Department is looking into extending the validity of Malaysian passports from 5 years to 10 years.
With that being announced, I strongly support the decision from the Government as I have been pushing for this move since 2021.
I hope that this policy amendment will be introduced as soon as possible and for the price of passports to remain at RM200 (for applicants aged 13-59 years old, RM100 for 60years and above).
Benefits that we have with 10 year passport validity are as follows:
1. Reduce the demand for passport renewals as most current passports are underutilized before expiry date.
2. Reduce the amount of manpower and resources required at the Immigration offices, embassies, and high commissions, purely for passport renewals.
3. Relieve Malaysians residing overseas the stress of having an expired passport during pandemic or disaster lockdown, thus unable to return to Malaysia.
I hope that this new policy will be implemented as soon as possible!
Andrew Chen Kah Eng
Stulang Assemblyman
