The renewal of
passport was one of the crucial events for me every 4 years. I need to properly
plan the trip so that it would not be too early or too close to the expiration
date. My earliest renewal was 8 months prior to the expiration date and ended
up being questioned by the officer for the reason we chosen to renew it early.
The officer had told me later that they had flipped through our passport
carefully just to see if I have any specific reason that I did so and they
found nothing; the process had taken them more than 2 hours to do so. Those who
had come later than me had picked up their passports and we were still waiting.
The officer let us passed when he knew that we had planned for a travel 3
months later and was unable to return to homeland for passport renewal as the
kids were schooling.
When the pandemic
started, my passport was far beyond its expiration death. However as the
pandemic dragged on for more than one year, I had begun to worry about my
passport renewal.
Returning home and
comply to the quarantine rule would take at least 30 days [14days
quarantine x 2 plus 2 days for passport renewal] provided that we are lucky enough not to
contract the disease during the travelling. It would not be feasible for
Yun,Xian and me. I had been closely following information about how the renewal
could be done at the representative office up north.
The renewal process
is easier at the homeland; you just need to present yourself, relevant documents
and money. Photo would be taken by the officer and woo la .. it is over. My
last renewal of passport at UTC Kuching was smooth. Even in the past where
photo had to be prepared by the applicant; it was simple and all you need is walk
into any photo joint and tell the uncle what you want. However the photographer
here was unfamiliar with the standard of photo needed for the passport renewal.
I was so anxious as there would be no margin for error as there would not be
any photographer around the office trying to take instant photo making fast
money out of those mischief who presented with unqualified photo.
I had to
coordinate between Yun, Xian and me so that we could head to the mission and
settle the problem in one shot. I started the planning two months prior to the
action.
I had e-mailed the
mission as suggested by most of the fellow homelanders from the web with no news
for over a week. I had to call up and the call was answered by a female
officer. When she knew that we were coming from the south; she had squeezed me
into the appointment list even though the date I asked for was full at the time
I called.
An order of “no
event” was given to Yun and Xian around the date I picked; I had pre-arranged my
leave and everything was set. However a small disagreement had altered my plan.
Yun wanted to travel up north on the day of action. I wanted to put a night at
T city and proceed to the mission without rush. I had to compromise and put up
a night near Yun’s place one night before the date.
So it would be
home ->HSR to TC city –stay a night->HSR to TP city early in the morning.
Hotel and ticket was booked after everything was finalized.
The tricky part
came later….
I download the
sample photo from the website and gone to the local photo studio where I been
patronized for years. I had to wear a deep color shirt which was not plain in
color as it was my only deep color shirt I had. The studio owner had tried to
be nice and made our photo look nicer…I was quite terrified when I saw the
photo; a noticeable grin was noted on the photo. It would not be feasible to
retake the photo and I had to cross my finger and live with it. Ving was actually
happy with it as the photo looked nice…
I photocopied all
the document needed and downloaded the form from the internet. The checklist
however did specifically state that the form had to be filled AT the office….
Everything seems
fine and fully prepare.....
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