Year end is coming. This means holiday season is coming! After two years of cooping domestically, it is time for many of us Malaysian to travel abroad. So, what do you need?
Renew your passport!
Today, we will talk about the first step: how to apply for passport renewal. Next week, we will talk about what to do after you have done the first step.
Currently, all passport renewals are to be carried out online, except for children below 13 years old, physically challenged individuals, students and pilgrims visitors. Visit https://imigresen-online.imi.gov.my/eservices/myPasport. Please have these three things ready before you proceed further: photograph, expired passport, bank account FPX login.
Before you proceed further, please make sure that you have your photograph ready with the requirements:
1) Wear dark clothes against a white background.
2) The size is 50mm (H) x 35mm (W).
3) For Muslim ladies who are wearing hijab, you are not allowed to cover your face.
4) No spectacles and coloured contact lenses; and no accessories on your head.
5) Make sure the photo quality is clear and around 1MB is the best. Or else you will have difficulty to upload.
Once you have that photograph ready, get ready your expired passport as you will need the information from there. Fill up the details as you browse through the website. Upload the photo, then, come to the payment page. Somehow, the website had disabled the use of credit card, so make sure you can access your bank account via FPX payment. After this, print out the receipt.
There you have it! You are ready for the next step: setting up an appointment.
Step 2: Setup Appointment
We know you are very excited to head to the immigration office as soon as you get your payment receipt printed out. But, hold your horses. There is one step you need to do: make appointment. As cliché as it sounds, “no money, no honey”. Here, “no appointment, no passport”.
How do you setup your appointment:
1. Go to https://sto.imi.gov.my/ to book the slots that you want to go and collect.
2. Please make sure you check the date, time, and collection centre that you wish to collect your passport. Personally, we would recommend you choose the morning session and the collection centre which is not too busy.
3. The appointment will be sent to your email. So please make sure you enter a valid email address to get the appointment slip.
Next get ready your identity card (IC), expired passport, receipt printout and appointment slip printout (from your email) so you can bring along with you on your appointment. Do remember to free up your time for at least half a day for the next step.
Step 3: Stamp Your Thumbprint & Collect Passport
On your appointment day, please bring along your identity card (IC), expired passport, receipt printout and appointment slip printout. If you do not have these, you are setting up yourself for disappointment.
There are three events to expect: queue for number, stamp your thumbprint and collect new passport. Please remember to free up your time for at least half a day for this process to complete in full cycle.
How do you know where to queue? Don’t be shy. All you need to do is ask. Time is an essence here. Save your time by asking, then you will be directed to the queue faster than finding it out by yourself. After the officer checked your documents for surrender, he/she will give you a number to wait for your queue to stamp your thumbprint.
Do not be deceived by how easy it looks. This process can take 1-2 hours long, depending on the queue. So, have your handphone charged, bring a book to read or watch the repeated infomercial on the TV screens. You will need these to kill time.
When your number is finally called, your IC will be returned to you, and get your two thumbs ready for action and get dirty. “Yay! I finally got my thumbprint done!”
As you are thinking your waiting nightmare is over, here comes the fun part: more waiting! Awaiting your new passport collection easily take another 1 hour plus. This process takes a while as the authority is processing the booklets in batches. See if lady luck is with you that day, so you can get your passport processed at the earliest batch possible.
At last, after the long wait, you eventually get your new passport! Your old passport will be returned to you also.
This concludes the episodes of how to get your passport renewed. Hope this has been a helpful step-by-step guide to know what to expect when you are getting your passport renewal. Happy travelling!