Monday, August 26, 2013

Passport Experience @ UTC Pudu Sentral

Last weekend, we arranged PIL to send Nico to KL so that we could bring him to do his international passport as our travelling days are approaching.

So we went to the Immigration at Kelana Jaya branch after we found out that Duta branch was closed on weekend since July. Well, we were told that it would definitely be a long queue on weekend since most of the branches were closed except a few designated branches are opened on Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 1pm (eg. Kelana Jaya and Putrajaya). No choice, no matter how long the queue would be, we still need to settle it for Nico.

When we reached Kelana Jaya branch at around 8.30am, the queue was so long! Okay, as expected... So Hubby put Nico and I down while he went to park his car with Kimi. I squeezed into the crowd only to find out from the officer that there was no special lane for children under age 2 as not enough working staffs during weekends. Fine... I decided to join in the crowd to queue and then only to realize that they had finished giving out numbers for that day. If we want to do, we need to come back on the next day, or to go to the Immigration Office UTC.

There are only 2 UTCs in KL, which is UTC Pudu Sentral and UTC Sentul. Hubby and I tried on Google maps and searched on Waze and yet couldn't locate where is the exact location. So we decided to drive to Jalan Pudu to have a look and only to realize UTC Pudu Sentral was actually located inside the Puduraya Bus Station! We were so silly! Hahaha... Never realize it at all....

Okay, reached there around 9.40am. Took our number and waited for our turns. Although Nico was queuing under the category of 'Children Under 2' years old, however, we waited until almost 12pm to reach our turns and to pay up. The officer told us it might take around 1-2 hours to produce the passport. After settled everything, we decided to go back home to wait instead of waiting there.

The office is a very small place with a big crowd over the weekend. Definitely not enough of seating arrangement. I was so lucky to get a seat with Nico on my lap. Hubby and Kimi needed to stand next to us as there were no empty seats for them. The officer informed us that it would be much better if we did it on weekdays as we had kids with us. Of course I know this! Just that I do not want to waste half day leaves for this... Else I also won't choose a weekend to do this.

We drove back to the immigration office at 7.30pm to collect the passport. Only to realize we need to bring Nico's birth certificate in order to collect it. We did not bring it with us so we were not allowed to collect it... OMG! Another wasted trip. Well, it was our carelessness on this... Really a lot of challenges!

The office hours are 8am-10pm however passport collection counter is opened until 8.30pm only. So we decided to go back on the next day to collect it.

Well, a tiring experience just to do a passport... Really tired! How I wish they re-open back the immigration offices on weekends so that we do not need to take so much hassles on a weekend to do the passport especially for parents like us.

And finally, it was done! Our cute Nico on the black and white passport photo :) Hurray.... Nico is travelling with us soon ~ Holidays are coming!


Pejabat Imigresen UTC Pudu Sentral
Aras 2, Wisma UTC
Jalan Pudu (Pudu Sentral)
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel : 03-2026 2079 / 2090 / 2092
Fax: 03-2026 2087

Office Hours:
Monday - Friday : 8.00 am - 10.00 pm
Saturday - Sunday : 8.00 am - 10.00 pm

Remarks:
Passport can be ready in 1 hour after payment


Location Map:


UTC office only provides the services of NEW passport application or passport RENEWAL application only. It does not offers the service to change passport photo. For this service, I need to go to the Immigration office at Jalan Duta to do it. So no matter how, I still need to apply half-day leaves to change Kimi's baby photo in his passport to one current photo of him. Kimi has grown up now! Time flies ~

11 comments:

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Nicholaz said...

Hi..thanks alot of ur this blog info...I'm just struggle to find the address of pudu branch which I can't find from their Portal...sigh.... I'm going to there later ard 6pm.. :)

Nicholaz said...

Hi..thanks alot of ur this blog info...I'm just struggle to find the address of pudu branch which I can't find from their Portal...sigh.... I'm going to there later ard 6pm.. :)

leecha said...

Thanks for your experience sharing in blog.

leecha said...

Thanks for your sharing on experience in UTC.

Ashley Jo said...

Thanks for the info! Was wondering if they do renewal only since its a small branch.... surprised to know they open till 10pm!

~ ShinY's Life ~ said...

You are most welcome!

Unknown said...

i'm surprise by the major improvement of the imigresen department. reach there bout 730am. queue was okay...at 840am they open the door, took us some time to collect the ticket, my number was 1032...i tot this will take some time, to my surprise at 910am they called my number...took bout 5 mins at the counter...bout 930am they called my number again to make the payment at inform me to wait 1 hour for the passport...at this point i'm already impress with the turn around time as i had a bad experience 2 years back at wangsa maju...main surprise came at 945am when they call my number to collect the passport...from ticket collection to passport collection took only 1 hour...kudos, keep up the good work...

Unknown said...

Hi, thanks for the info...

Just wanna ask that, do they collect photocopy of the birth certificate when you collect the passport?

Thanks^^

Unknown said...

Hi, thanks for the info...

Just wanna ask that, do they collect photocopy of the birth certificate when you collect the passport?

Thanks^^

~ ShinY's Life ~ said...

Hi Kiko Kent, you need to bring the original Birth Cert for verification during the collection of passport. I am not sure on the photocopy but remember to bring the original one as I was not allowed to collect it at the first time when I left my original birth cert at home. S I went for the 2nd time if not mistaken :) Thanks.