After our not-so-pleasant experience when renewing Eugene’s passport in April. We wanted to try using online renewal this time around.
1st, we got Emmett's photo taken at an old photo studio near our house. Just a passport photo, shouldn't be that difficult, right? Wrong..
Then, I uploaded his photo to the online portal; for child below 18, you have to upload their birth certificate too. Payment must be made before you can submit your final application. Got an email on the next working day saying there was an error in the photo. No specific reason was mentioned. I suspect the orange color collar or the over-edited photo by the photo studio.
So we went for a 2nd photo taking, this time at a reputable photo studio in Satok. The photo was professionally done, not overly edited, and a dark jacket was also provided. I uploaded the new photo to the portal again. And I got another error email on the next working today. Again, there is no indication of what’s wrong with the photo uploaded.
So, what should we do next? Go take another photo? We already spent RM45 so far on the 2 photos. Might as well just go to the immigration office to find out more.
So on Wednesday, after picking up Emmett from school, we went to UTC Kuching. We reach UTC at around 3:15pm. All documents are ready in my beg pack: laptop in case they need the softcopy of the previous photos, extra floth in case Emmet’s shirt in case the one his is was wearing not dark enough. My IC, Emmett’s IC, birth cert, and his old passport. All has to be in original and also a photocopy.
There were not many people when we reached there, maybe around 20. I explained our situation to the Abang immigration at the reception counter. The Abang immigration was so helpful, he said these things happened. And he said why didn’t you just come here for the renewal? And I informed him of our not-so-pleasant experience before.
He said not to worry, we can complete the process here and take the photo on the spot. Pheww I was so relieved.
Every time there's always a drama when renewing our passport. I guess there are many things in life that depend on luck. There’s no point dwelling on it. Luckily for us, the whole process in UTC took less than 50 minutes.
Now that all our passports are valid, where should we go this year end?
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