We were back at UTC Pudu at 8am this morning to have our passports renewed.
Yesterday evening, we were greeted by this notice when we reached the Immigration Dept at UTC:
All the numbers for the day had been taken and we were told to come back the next day. BUMMER!! With only 5 days to Alycia and Drama Queen’s flight to Hong Kong, we were all getting a tad jittery with so little time left to renew the passports. Plus the school holidays have just started and all the immigration offices will be swamped with people. That’s the reason why I have never liked anything done impromptu, especially trips.
When we reached UTC at 8 a.m. today, there were at least 40~50 people ahead of us. We’re so going to camp there I thought and I was worried that Cass may not make it on time to reach her school by 12 noon to attend her 3-day STEM Lab holiday program.
After a half-hour queue (thanks to my 3 big darlings) for helping me queue up while I sat down and replied to emails on my phone, we got our numbers.
The numbers that we got were 1041, 1042, 1043 and 1044. Hubs didn’t need to renew his passport. Just the girls and me. The number being attended to at that time was 1002. So we had to wait for 39 people ahead of us. Great. We found some seats at the back and I whipped up my box of cut fruits for the girls to munch on. Someone didn’t want to eat anything when she got up this morning. She should be thankful for the fruits that I had packed along for her to snack on, else she would be regretfully suffering from gastric pains by 10 a.m.
After 1.5 hours of waiting, it was our turn. A suave, lanky, charming and cordial bloke attended to us. Within 20 minutes, our four passports renewal process including photo taking at the counter was done. Then waited for another half an hour to pay. Payment is RM200 for adults and RM100 for kids below 14 years old. We paid RM600. After payment we were told that our passports would be ready within 1 hour. However, within 15 minutes, we were called to collect our passports. That was super efficient!
Drama Queen signing on the form to acknowledge receipt of her renewed passport.
For renewal of passport, these are the dox required:
1) Original birth certificate of the child
2) Photocopy of birth certificate (1 copy)
3) Original My Kad and My Kid of the child and the accompanying parent
4) A copy of the IC of the accompanying mother or father for every child who needs passport renewal. For me, I had to make 3 copies of my IC for my 3 girls.
5) 1 copy of My Kid / My Kad of the child
6) RM100 renewal fee for kids under 14 years old (for 5 years)
6) RM200 renewal fee for adults (not sure though if there is a discounted rate for senior citizen) (for 5 years)
There is no more 1 year renewal. Only for 5 years. Not sure if they have for 10 years though.
There are no forms to fill out by the applicant for renewal of passport. Kudos to the Immigration Office! 😉
Tips:
Wear a dark colored top or bring along a dark colored jacket to wear over your light colored top. I brought along a black jacket with no collar. Else, you can wear the oversized blazer provided by them 😀
During photo-taking, you will be told not to show your teeth when you smile. When Alycia smiled and exposed her teeth, the handsome bloke told her not to show her teeth. I was informed that this is a new ruling. Really?!
So the four of us had to smile without showing our teeth. Someone is really very unhappy with how she looks in her passport – a stifled smile that made her look really hilarious and she has to bear with the picture for the next 5 years lol!
One thing I like about the new Immigration Office at UTC is that you can have everything done from photo taking to photocopying at the office itself. When we renewed our passports 6 years ago at the Jalan Duta Immigration Office, we had to move from one floor to another to have our photos taken and to photocopy our documents.
The 2.5-hour wait was not bad at all considering it being a super peak period (school holidays).
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