One-hour passport renewal for Kuching folk

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KUCHING: Locals can now renew their passports in just an hour with the launch of the Malaysian Passport Renewal Kiosk (Kippas) at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar here yesterday.

GETTING MORE SOPHISTICATED: Md Basimin (left) officially launches the newly installed kiosk while Robert looks on.

The kiosk, the 15th of its kind in the country, was launched by Sarawak federal secretary Md Basimin Yahaya.

Speaking at the function, state Immigration director Datuk Robert Lian said with the installation of the kiosk, those who want to renew their passports need not have to queue up at the department’s counters anymore.

They just need to place their applications in a machine together with the required payment.

“In an hour they will be able to collect their passports from our normal counters by presenting their payment receipts,” he said.

He pointed out that the launch of Kippas here meant that all Immigration offices throughout the state could now renew passports within an hour.

Since last May, Immigration offices in

Sibu, Miri, Limbang and Bintulu, could process and issue passports within an hour.

The one-hour processing time, however, was only for the issuance of new passports and also renewal where the original documents were without any defects, he explained.

For those with defects or applications that required further screening due to security reasons, the procedures would be different and the process could take up to one month, Robert said.

Nevertheless, he said, with the new machine, the department would be able to further improve its delivery system as encouraged by the government.

Robert said for the first six months of this year the Sarawak Immigration Department processed and issued 62,612 passports, an increase of 50 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year.