Citizenship application for stateless being fine-tuned
KUCHING: The procedure for stateless individuals in Sarawak to apply for citizenship has been fine-tuned to ensure better success rate, said Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.
The Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Minister said it should take about 37 days, from the point of an application received to the point of the temporary document handed over to the district office (DO).
Met by reporters here yesterday, she said all the DOs will soon be briefed about the fine-tuned procedure to ascertain that everything is done right at the point of application.
“The receiving point (of application) will be at the DOs, so we need to explain to them (DOs) the procedures, that upon receiving (an application), they must go through the checklist.
“The form must be complete so that we don’t need to return (incomplete) form. Everything must be done right at the point of application, which is at the DO.
“We calculated and double checked, the procedure right from the DO up to SS (State Secretary) office who will issue the document, will take about 37 days because we want to make sure the process doesn’t take long,” she said after a visit to Sunway Traditional and Complementary Medicine Centre and Sunway Fertility Centre at Canaan Square Business Hub, Jalan Stutong Baru here.
Fatimah said her ministry will
announce when applications are open at the respective DOs across the state once a briefing for DOs has been conducted.
She said such move will offer convenience to applicants who would not need to come all the way to the ministry to submit their applications.
Once applications are received, she said her ministry will attend to the rest of the business.
According to her, applications for citizenship used to be sent directly to Putrajaya by applicants themselves.
“But we have made a request so that all these (citizenship application) forms can be sent
to JPN (National Registration Department) at all district, division and state levels.
“This is to enable JPN to check those forms, and I stress, we want to make sure once applications for citizenship reach Putrajaya, they won’t be rejected due to incomplete forms. We must make sure all documents required must be ready,” she explained.
Presently, Fatimah said the ministry had no record of the number of stateless individuals in Sarawak.
She hoped that once the finetuned procedure is in place, the JPN will be able to monitor such figure.
“When we have our special working committee meeting later, we will have the total figure.”
In the past, she said whether an application for citizenship was approved or not approved, only the applicant was informed.
“It was between the applicant and Putrajaya, so JPN didn’t know. We request that JPN is involved so that they can help out to ensure the application form is complete to ensure the success rate.
“This is so that no application is turned down due to the fact of incomplete form,” she added.