The Home Ministry and Immigration Department must take immediate, and efficient steps to improve this experience for applicants that intend to renew or apply for a new passport at their department.
They should have taken pro-active steps to foresee the surge in demand especially in view of the opening of borders and done the necessary steps to smoothen the process the reduce the waiting time for applicants.
This morning, in response to public complaints I paid a courtesy visit to the Immigration Department to better understand the situation and to give suggestions how we can improve the situation.
The officials said that it was the festive season, and many employees had already returned to their hometowns for the holidays. As a result, the department was short of manpower.
In response to our feedback, they have assured that they will open more service counters after the Dayak holiday to ease the queues.
While the Immigration Department has advised the public to do some of the application online to fasten the process, but there is no special lane for them and they end up have to join the common queue and prolong the wait for everyone.
That is why in order to ease the queues, I suggest that the Kuching Immigration Department open a “special channel” at the counter, so that those who have updated online can quickly get their new passports done.
With the reopening of the border, I believe that everyone can’t wait to apply for or renew their passports and prepare to go abroad.
We will keep on monitoring the situation and give necessary feedback for convenient of public.
I encourage everyone to to apply for passport renewal online to fasten the process. Interested parties can do it online in advance and follow the steps to apply for passport renewal.
The most important thing is that applicants must first understand the conditions and methods of renewing their passports online, and pay special attention to the important matters of uploading personal photos, which must meet the requirements of the authorities, including dress and background color.
The online passport renewal link of the Immigration Service is as follows: