Sunday, August 22, 2010

8 Simple Steps On How to Get Your Passport Done In KL On A Weekend

On Friday evening, my friend Dinosaur asked if I could accompany him to get his first-time passport application done on Saturday morning, as he does not know the way to the immigration office in Damansara.

Although I've heard of rumors that one would have to queue up very early in the wee morning to get his/her passport done --and I love my sleep but...-- being the curious George that I am, I said yes.

On Saturday morning, Dinosaur came over to my place and pick me up at 7am. "Not very early as the rumors put it. Yay!", I thought.

But when we got there, Holy shitz! The queue was so long, we had to start way at the back. To make things worse, while we were half way through the queue, there was announcement that said, "Numbers for today is already finished. Please come again tomorrow."

The first thing that crossed my mind was all the one-, two-, three-, four-, five-, and six-letter words I can think of in various languages!

So Dinosaur and I concluded that we must get there earlier the next day...

Early this morning, when my alarm rang at 5am, the only thing I wanted to do is smash my clock into smithereens. A part of me wanted to continue sleeping, but my curiosity got the best of me. Sheepishly, I dragged myself out of my cosy bed and started to get ready.

Dinosaur reached my place at 6am sharp, and off we went.

When we got there, this was what we saw:

For fuck's sake, it's a Sunday! Sundays are meant for all everyone in the world, me included, to sleep in late and not wake up until the sun is about to set! Why the fuck are all these people here?! >.<

An hour later...
After we got into the building, I asked one of the guards how many numbers were given out per day, and I was told that they only release "200 on weekends"! Thank goodness we got there early!

Welll, to cut the grandmother story short: We made it this time, and Dinosaur got his passport, while and I got my experience of...

8 Simple Steps...
On How to Get Your Passport Done
In KL On A Weekend

Step 1:
Wake up and try to reach there BEFORE 6am. Anything later than 7am, you'll have to start counting the number of person standing in line. If you're Person #201, you can still take the risk of hoping that someone will give up half way. But you're Person #202 and onwards, I would seriously suggest you go home and get back to your date with the Sandman. If you're within the 200 people in the waiting list, congratu-fucking-lations! Because now, you get to proceed to Step #2, which is to...

Step 2:
Join the fucking long queue and wait for the place to open at 8am.

Step 3:
When the doors open at 7.45am, follow the queue to go upstairs into the Immigration Office to queue for another 15 minutes before the counter opens.

Step 4:
Get your number once the counter opens and wait for your turn. This wait till take about half hour to 2 hours to get your turn to be attended, depending on the queue number you get.

Step 5:
After submitting your forms and relevant documents to the immigration officer, you have to wait for another 15mins to half an hour before being able to pay for your application.

Step 6:
After paying the-relevant-amount-of-money-needed-to-get-your-passport-done/renewed to the cashier, go walk and roam around for an hour or so while they prepare your passport. There is a McDonald's near by, so my suggestion would be to bring a laptop and go sit there, while you try to kill that hour.

Step 7:
Go back to the collection counter and wait some more before they call your number.

Step 8:
Once they call your number, go collect your passport, and sign on it. Now you're ready to go out and terrorize the world!

Total time spent today: 5 and half hours. (6am - 11.30am)

- jessim © 22082010 -