As international borders (including ours) begin to reopen to tourists once again, more and more Malaysians are finally able to give in to their inner wanderlust and begin making trave plans. And given that fact, it probably comes as no surprise to anyone that many of us would be teeming the Immigration counters to have our underused and expired passports renewed.
M’sian spends 8 hours at UTC to renew passport, only to be turned away
But sometimes, getting that done can be a pretty arduous process in of itself, what with the long lines and lengthy bureaucratic process involved. And this fact is only further cemented by the experience of one Twitter user, who recently took to expressing her frustrations at trying to have her own passport renewed at an Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) recently.
harini i beratur lama gila dekat utc pudu for passport since 7 pagi sampai 3 petang. lepas tu bila betul2 turn i, terus pegawai cakap dah tak accept org & dtg balik next time.
dah la dgn puasa pastu tak cukup tidur mcm nak patah tulang je beratur dekat 8 jam 🥹✌🏻 pic.twitter.com/2ra01N2Iq8
— Fyna | Swifty (๑◕︵◕๑) (@Axfyna) April 26, 2022
According to Fyna, she explained that she had made the decision to travel to her nearest UTC as early as 7.00am in the morning, with the hope of being able to get her passport renewal out of the way. Unfortunately, what she had hoped would be a relatively pain-free process turned into an 8-hour ordeal that had her waiting at the UTC until 3.00pm in the afternoon.
“Nevermind the fact that I was fasting and didn’t get enough sleep from the night before. I felt like my bones were about to break, having to stand in line for 8 hours.” she said.
And at the very moment that she managed to make it all the way up to the counter for her turn, the officer simply told her that they will not be accepting any new renewal applications and told her to come back the very next day.
Understandably frustrated by the ordeal, Fyna wondered why it wasn’t possible for staff members to first estimate their daily capacity for passport renewals and issue slots based upon it, instead of having patrons wait for an entire day and to only be treated with disappointment by the end of it.
She adds that the common excuses she has encountered often come down to:
- The system operating too slowly.
- A lack of manpower (not all counters are open)
- Some staff have headed home early due to Ramadan.
Exasperated, Fyna says that she had no choice but to take a chance by walking-in instead of making an online appointment, as the only slots left available were in June and her next flight was scheduled for next month.
Netizens share similar experiences at government offices
Her Tweet, which has since gone viral across social media, has led to many netizens sharing similar experiences at government offices.
However, some have offered her possible solutions and advised Fyna to consider visiting a few other less popular UTCs, where they have been able to renew their own passports with relatively little fuss.
This article was published with the consent of the original author.
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