Mum's passport re(new)al

My mum's passport expired years ago. Few months ago, I was looking up on the internet on whether I could still apply for passport online. It seems that it was possible but additional steps were needed if current passport had already expired AND damaged or lost but, as you might have noticed, nothing about passport that's expired but not damaged or lost. Shockingly laughable.

I then phoned the immigration department at Seberang Jaya. The officer said that mum could still apply online but he advised us to walk-in because there was a special lane for senior citizen. It would be fast and easy. Mum just needed to bring her old passport and her IC. Photograph would be taken there too and so no need to bring along passport photos.

So, Ban and I brought mum there soon after her visa to Australia was granted. However, halfway there, we discovered that she forgot to bring her old passport. Panic set in. Ban, who was driving, asked me whether we should turn back home or not. I asked for some time to think, which luckily I did so because I thought of calling the immigration department. I told the officer that mum misplaced her passport. After getting confirmation from me that her passport had already expired (this matters because if it hadn't expired, I believed we had to make a police report first), she asked us to bring mum's IC along with two photocopies of it. Upon query, she said that there were photocopy shops nearby.

At one point during the process, we asked the cashier whether mum can apply as OKU. FYI it's free for OKU while it's discounted to RM 100 for senior citizen. Normal fee is RM 200. We apologised for not knowing that we should had disclosed at the prior counter when the application was process. Nevertheless, after taking a look at mum's OKU card, the cashier went off to the back and came back saying that mum could proceed as an OKU applicant. That's helpful and kind of the cashier :) Additional documents needed was 1 copy of IC and 2 copies of the OKU card, front and back for both cards.

Shockingly, the photocopy shop within the immigration department's compound charged RM 1 for a copy of front and back of the identity whereas a shop just outside the gate, where we got two copies of IC earlier, charged only RM 0.40.

It is true that things went quite fast i.e. slightly less than hour. We didn't need to fill any forms. There was no queue for her. Waited three times i.e. to apply, to pay and to collect. Think we waited the longest to collect. The officers there were polite and gentle with mum. One gently reminded her to keep her passport safely so as not to lose it again :)