I Made My Malaysian Passport For The First Time At 24 Years Old. Here's What To Expect
Based on real life experiences. :P
Generally, making or renewing passports in Malaysia isn't the smoothest process.
The general consensus regarding it hasn't been that great, after all.
Regardless, it's still a compulsory step if you're thinking of going off on a holiday overseas, whether you like it or not. Fortunately, I recently made my passport for the very first time at the age of 24, and here's how it went for me!
First off, make sure you have all these items before you head to the immigration office:
2. Birth certificate (only if you're registering for your child who's under the age of 12)
3. Two photostat copies of your IC (front and back)
4. RM200 cash to pay for the passport (just in case the immigration office or UTC doesn't accept card or online payments)
5. Wear presentable, dark clothing for the passport picture
Once you've prepared all that, here's everything you can expect from your first passport-making process:
1. Get ready to wake up as early as 6am
Image via Hafiz Zainuddin/SAYS
People applying for their passports the first time must visit a physical branch of the immigration office or UTC (Urban Transformation Centre) as no online options are available. I decided to go to the Mini UTC branch in Keramat, Kuala Lumpur.
You need to wake up reaaaal early because people would have already started queing by 6am to avoid the dreaded 'nombor habis' announcement. Once the queue numbers for you to get your passport are finished, you'll have to come by another day.
At the branch I went to, the officer told me they were only handing out 500 queue numbers on that day. This may vary depending on the branch or time you go.
Expect a long line even if you come early, because I arrived at the mini UTC at 7.15am and the line was already beginning to pile up. :O
2. You will be passing through four checkpoints, the first one is the queue to get your number
Image via Hafiz Zainuddin/SAYS
At 8am, an officer came out and divided us into three lines; one for walk-in applicants, one for senior citizens and children below the age of 12, and one for people who have made an appointment online, which is only applicable to those who are renewing their passport.
From my experience, the first checkpoint is where you'll wait the longest. As you can see from the image above, I only got my number at 9.37am despite arriving at 7.15am, which is roughly a two-hour wait, and there were still 21 people ahead of me at the time.
Once you reach the officer at the first checkpoint, he will ask you to provide your physical IC alongside one copy of your photostat IC. Make sure that the copy is clear, and doesn't block any important details, like your name and address.From this point, you don't have to queue up anymore, but be prepared to stand for another hour or so because of limited seats.
3. The second checkpoint is where you'll take your passport pic, so look nice kay? ;)
Image via Saryuti Zainudin/Malay Mail
Once your number is called, the officer will ask you to provide your physical IC, alongside a second photostated copy of your IC.
The process is pretty straightforward, but do ensure that you wear dark and presentable clothing (collared-shirts preferred) and make sure your hair or headscarf is neatly-styled. If you wear bright clothing, the officer will most likely provide a blazer or coat for you to wear.Then, you'll be asked to look into the AI tracking camera for your passport picture, yay!
4. The third and objectively shortest checkpoint is where you'll make payment
Image via Hafiz Zainuddin/SAYS
At this point, you've done all the steps you need to initiate your passport. Do keep in mind that the officer will keep your IC for a while to start processing your passport.
After waiting for around for 20 to 30 minutes, your number will get called up by a different officer, who will return your IC back to you, and ask for payment.
The cost of making a passport is RM200, and at the Mini UTC in Keramat, they only accepted card and online payments. However, it's still a good idea to keep cash in hand depending on which branch you go to. Once payment is made, you'll be given a receipt as well as an allocated time of how long you have to wait to collect your passport.
5. Once all of that is done, all you'll need to do is collect your passport. Woohoo! :D
Image via Hafiz Zainuddin/SAYS
After you've made your payment, the officer will ask you to wait an hour before collecting your passport. It'll be written down on your receipt too.
This way, you can do anything you want to kill time while you wait for your passport. By the time I got mine, the clock was standing at 12.31pm. :)
Now that I got my passport, it's time to fly off for a vacayyyyy, buh-bye! :P
If you haven't heard, there's a new kiosk in Shah Alam for Malaysians to renew their passports:
Here are multiple ways to renew your passport if it's approaching the expiry date:
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