Apply passport online

i think that this is a interesting news for all the malaysians:

KUALA LUMPUR: There is more good news for those renewing and applying for international passports: they can do so online and pick up their documents later.

By middle of this year, Malaysians can submit their application online with their MyKad details and go the next day to collect their passports.

Immigration Director-General Datuk Wahid Mohd Don said the online application would be possible once the department streamlines passport applications and renewals procedures without forms.

“We will go paperless, hopefully by the middle of this year.”

“Our IT officials are in the process of working closely with the National Registration Department (NRD) where all the information provided will be checked with their database.”

The move was aimed at encouraging and introducing a paperless procedure for international passports, said Deputy Home Affairs Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho after an official visit to Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM) yesterday.

Tan said the ministry was in the final stages of discussion with the NRD on implementing the procedure.

“It is our aim to completely erase the need to produce documents such as one’s birth certificate when applying or renewing passports, in addition to eliminating the need to be present.”

“However, (applicants) would still have to personally collect their passports once it is ready,” he said in response to a recent report of a large number of applicants crowding the Pusat Bandar Damansara Immigration office.

On Wednesday, an estimated 1,000 people were waiting for services at the office here while many others were also held up at another section of the office where the self-service e-Passport replacement kiosks were located.

The crowd barely eased up yesterday.

In this matter, Tan said the ministry had planned to gradually install a replacement kiosk for each state within this year.

Source: The Star Online

I do hope that this service will also be extended to the overseas Malaysians, which can't go back due to certain personal reason. If they can apply for the renewal of passport online, and the passport will be sent to the nearest Malaysia Embassy or Representative at overseas, that will be indeed a good news for the overseas Malaysians, as they will only need to collect their passports at the nearest Malaysia Embassy without going through the hussle of flying back to Malaysia and get their passports personally at National Registration Department Malaysia.