Passport & Immigration Services

Based on true events

Sunday night: 
Flying overseas the next day at 11.20am by AirAsia with passport validity less than 6 months

Monday morning:
Queue at Immigration office Putrajaya at 7.30am. Counter opens at 8am. Go next door to snap passport picture & photocopy of IC. Queue again with completed form and payment at 8.50am. Passport ready at 9.30am, process takes only 40 minutes. Rush to LCCT and check in around 10.20am. Fly off to destination at 11.20am. Phew*
*Warning: Do not try this in the near future as it may induce anxiety.


In a nutshell
If you are planning to travel overseas, please make sure that your passport's validity is at least 6 months before the expiry date, or you may not be allowed to leave the country at all. The situation above is purely situational. What if the immigration office was offline and they couldn't process the passport? Then you won't be able to fly unless AirAsia postpones the flight.

How to know validity of your passport? Please read this blogspot by Nina Mustaffa.

 

Immigration Services
There are a few ways to renew passport:

Counter
There are some branches which opens on Saturday and Sunday from 8am - 1pm. So even if you are super busy you can still do your passport on the weekend. List of the Immigration offices that opens on weekend are here. This is still the most reliable form of passport update as it takes about 1 hour once you have made the payment (provided that you are early in getting the queue no.).

Kiosk
Person has to be manually there to key in personal info and drop the old passport. However, I was in Immigration office a few times but did not find the kiosk to be helpful as it was always out of service. One time I noticed that the officer would go to the kiosk and take out the applications to be processed manually. So it will take more time than queuing at the counter.


Online
For convenience, Immigration has also set up an online process at MyONLINE*PASSPORT. Very convenient but also at a risk of Immigration to reject application if pic is not up to the standard. You can specify branch and date that you want the collect the passport. However, it also mentioned that it may take two hours to collect depending on branch.


Good luck!