The Immigration Department has decided to reopen its counters for Visit Pass (Temporary Employment) or PLKS extension applications from today till Feb 28.

This comes after the department was subjected to public criticism for outsourcing the management of the centralised foreign worker permit system to MyEG Services Bhd, to be done online.

"We have decided that the PLKS counters will be reopened for the time being, while the online system will continue," Immigration Department director-general Mustafa Ibrahim said at a press conference today.

However, Mustafa said, employers wanting to do their transactions over-the-counter have to be present by themselves and would have to do a biometric fingerprint scan.

This he said, was to avoid employers using middlemen or agents to handle their transactions.

The step was among the measures being taken in the Proof of Concept (POC) system under the MyEG services.

“After the POC period ends on Feb 28, that is when the online PLKS system will be fully implemented,” Mustafa ( right ) said.

Asked about the RM38 processing fee, which has also come under fire from many people, Mustafa said the fee was determined by the government.

“This fee was fixed by the government and the government considers it to be reasonable,” he adding that the fee was inclusive of all services provided by MyEG.

The renewal of passports at the Immigration Department during weekends is also to be discontinued immediately.

Mustafa said these renewals could still be done at other Home Ministry offices.