Travel : Renew Passport

Hello !

My passport will expire on April 2013, so for my next trip this December, I had to renew it. Everyone knows that applying for a passport or renewing one will take time. I don't even like the process myself. There was a time when I was 13, I remember taking a number in the morning and went back home, later that afternoon, I went back to wait for my turn. It was a really slow process. 

So few weeks back, I Googled for online renewal application and found out that someone use this : MyIMMS - eservice. It is not widely known, I just found out about it. So I read the requirement and process slowly and decided to use this way. 

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1) On picture

My brother and I went to take a passport photo, little did we know that we should probably take our own photo at home because the specifications for the photo were some basic rules any graphic based student can easily achieve. Actually I was not satisfied with the amateur photographer aka salesperson at the photo shop that took our photo :

1) She used built-in flash on basic cheap digital camera 

2) She edited my picture using God-knows-what resulting my face looked like I used 1-inch foundation : she just blurred the picture out , and I looked tan. 

So I feel cheated.

See, blurred picture.

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2 ) On application

Requirement : Passport photo & Debit/Credit Card

I filled in the form here and uploaded my picture. I tried to upload my pictures many times because every time I crop it, it will automatically stretch my face a little bit. I hate my distorted face : even though it is not really obvious, I still know a distorted picture when I see one. 

Anyhoo, I applied for 5 years passport - RM 300 and my brother applied for 2 years passport - RM 100 , paid using my Maybank debit card and printed the receipt. 

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3 ) On Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia

Requirement : The printed receipt & Old passport

I went there on Tuesday afternoon and asked someone from the counter on the process. She said I should take a number. So, after I took a number and waited for 1/2 hour, I decided to come again the next day because I was in a hurry. On the second day, very early in the morning, I went back and gave my yesterday's number, she took my new shiny passport and I gave her my digital thumbprints and there ! Exactly 5 minutes time. I am serious. My mom didn't even finished replying her text message.

PS : Try to take a look at everyone serving at counters, they ALL looked the same ! 7 counters,  20-ish women, wearing the exact same outfit, wearing spectacles, and almost the same height and face! :D 

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Here to my next 5 years travel time :