Renewal run - part 2

 

My anxiety increased over days; anything could go wrong and I just couldn’t imagine about squeezing through the agony again….

At D-1 days, I had gone through everything again after I woke up from my sleep. Everything was in order; red book, birth cert, myKAD, copies…We headed to the HSR station and have our late dinner at a Japanese food joint. To be honest, I did not enjoy the meal; my brain was all over the renewal event.

The journey to TC city was uneventful and we had checked into Kloud hotel as planned. I met Yun and help her to photocopy the final piece of document at the convenient store nearby; final stone dropped and I was able to have a nap after all those stresses. It seems that everything should be fine but yet I had started to worry about the return trip. Xian got a class to catch and we would need to get on the HSR by noon to make it happen.

I sunk in the bed and woke up after 5 hrs of blackout. I prepared myself and woke up Ving and Xian one by one. By 7am, we had gathered in front of Yun hostel and waiting for the Uber chartered car to arrive. I had been using Uber for the past few months while travelling up north. Simple interface and good service it was. I chartered a RAV4 hybrid as I was sourcing for my next car. It had been ten years since we had Fefe and it is almost time to move on. The ride was average and RAV4 would be at the bottom of the list at the moment.

We had successfully caught up the train and arrived at TP city on time.

I opted for taxi as I did not want to squeeze with other in the LRT at this Covid period.

The ride seems forever from my point of view; moment of truth and the worst is to do it again next month….

On arrival we found that the visa division had shifted to another location 700m from the mission. My fault as I did not read the instruction properly and just took for granted that the visa division is located at the same building.

It was another fast walk for us and we were almost stressed out when we arrived at the building.

The visa division was located at 12F and as expected, the office was packed with people who wished to renew their passport….

The renewal run....part 1

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.....