Getting your passport renewed can be a difficult procedure for the unprepared, especially now that national borders have reopened.
While the Immigration Department has extended the opening hours of all service counters in various states until 10 pm to deal with the flood of passport applications, certain conditions still apply depending on where you are.
For example, The Vibes discovered that immigration counters at UTC Selangor in Shah Alam close at 4.30pm.
According to a UTC Selangor employee who prefers to remain anonymous, the immigration service counters would only be open till 10 pm from 1 June.
On 23 May, Immigration Department Director-General Datuk Seri Khairul Dzaimee Daud announced that immigration offices in Peninsular Malaysia’s urban transformation centres (UTCs) will be open till 10 pm starting 25 May.
However, immigration offices at the UTCs in Perlis, Terengganu, and Pahang will only be open until 6 pm.
On 9 May, he announced that immigration offices in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor, Negeri Sembilan, and Melaka would be open until 10 pm, and that all passport-issuing offices in these states would be open every Saturday from 8 am to 1 pm commencing May 14.
A similar check at the Home Ministry facility on Jalan Duta in Kuala Lumpur revealed that the immigration passport desks remain open till 10 pm.
These counters, however, only handle online applications and are not open on Saturdays, while walk-in services are only available to the disabled, minors, first-time applicants, and the elderly.
It is also important to keep in mind that counters open until 10 pm will take a dinner break from 7 pm to 8 pm, in addition to a lunch break earlier in the day.
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