High Commission speeding up passport renewal in Australia
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian High Commission in Canberra is committed to speeding up the renewal of passports in Australia and has taken several measures, including easing the phone line congestion.
Second Secretary (Head of Chancery) Hoo Yip Soon said several changes had been made to speed up the passport renewal process in Australia.
“Our duty officers in charge of attending to emergency cases outside of office hours will be answering queries during office hours as well to ease the phone line congestion.
“We have also addressed several frequently asked questions on our Facebook page and we are coordinating with the Melbourne office to put up information on passport extensions.
“This information will be blasted on all the pages of Canberra, Melbourne and Perth offices to ensure consistency,” he said, adding that Malaysia’s Immigration Department was also working on some recommendations to resolve the issue.
Australian Malaysian Singaporean Association (Amsa) executive committee member and president-elect Thomson Ch’ng said the passport renewal crisis had caused a lot of confusion and inconvenience to Malaysians in Australia.
“Over the last 12 months, Amsa has received many complaints from Malaysians about the process of passport renewal in Australia.
“There is an increasing sense of frustration over the delays and lack of clear communications both before and during the process of seeking a passport renewal in Australia, and many are in despair.
“In a foreign land, a passport is the only document that is legally recognised as proof of identity for any foreigner.
“Malaysians with an expired passport have faced enormous challenges to prove their identity when applying or renewing their Australian visa or permanent residency, enrolling for courses in educational institutions, or seeking employment,” he said in a phone interview.
Ch’ng said the Immigration Department must do more to improve its services and systems.
“We urge the Immigration Department headquarters in Putrajaya to pay extra attention to this long overdue matter that has been brought to the attention of the Director-general’s office in October.
“While we appreciate that the Malaysian Immigration team in Australia is doing its best to accommodate the sudden surge of passport renewal requests as the result of the international border closure over the last few months, more needs to be done to improve its services and systems.
“To be fair, the High Commission of Malaysia in Canberra has tried to do something about the issue by launching new initiatives such as a mobile office for passport renewal in Sydney a few weeks ago.
“We have received feedback that over 200 Malaysians in Sydney managed to get their passport renewed at the Passport Renewal Mobile Office organised on Nov 13 and 14 at the Malaysian Consulate in Sydney.
“As a result, some of these Malaysians have offered their originally scheduled appointment slots to their friends who were unable to get an appointment in Canberra or Melbourne.
“We also hope that the Immigration team in Australia will consult and work closely with us to improve its services and processes,” he said.
The Star had reported that many Malaysians in Melbourne were frustrated over not being able to renew their expiring passports.
The Malaysian High Commission in Canberra had said that the relaxation of interstate and international travel restrictions caused the number of new applications or renewals for passports by Malaysians in Australia to increase exponentially, resulting in extended waiting times for appointments.
Some with passports expiring early next year claimed that they were told that the only available slots for passport renewals at the Malaysian consulate there were in December 2022, forcing them to apply for emergency permits to fly home to renew their passports.
It is learnt that the Immigration Department has only one passport machine in Melbourne, where the problem is most acute, and just two officers in Melbourne, two in Perth and one in Canberra to process applications.