Online renewal will cut congestion
Once crowds at Immigration disappear, dept can send personnel to critical areas
PUTRAJAYA: My Online Passport, the new online passport renewal system to be launched on Thursday, will help overcome congestion at the Immigration Department counters, says directorgeneral Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali.
Grouses such as long queues, lengthy waiting time and queue numbers running out could be resolved with this system.
The public will only have to go to the counters to collect their passports and the process takes about 10 to 30 minutes to be completed.
He said the system would begin operations in Putrajaya and three other states Pahang, Sarawak and Penang – as well as two Urban Transformation Centres in Pudu Sentral and Johor.
“If all goes well, we will extend the service nationwide from the second week onwards,” he told MSTAR Online, The Star’s Bahasa Malaysia portal yesterday.
Mustafar emphasised that it had always been the department’s priority to protect the personal details of passport holders.
“This is why we still required the applicants to bring their birth certificates and original passports, together with the payment receipts when collecting the new ones,” he added.
Mustafar said the department issues about two million passports annually.
For this year, a total of 1.466 million passport applications applied as at July 31, he added. “If more people are renewing their passports online, it will help reduce at least half the traffic at the counters,” he said, adding payments could only be made via credit card.
He was confident that the system, which saves time and easy to use, would receive a good response.
Mustafar said with this new “automatic office” in place, the department could assign officers for more critical tasks such as duties at the KL International Airports Immigration counters, sea ports and other entry points.