Immigration Department ordered passport vendors to increase production and passport supply to overcome the shortage of stocks that is causing congestion at the counters.

Immigration director-general Mustafar Ali said a total of 320,000 passports has been supplied for August that is 80,000 per week, and 400,000 passports each for September, October and November.

“The issue was caused by faulty chips in the polycarbonate data page and the passports could not be supplied in the specified amounts,” he said in a statement in Putrajaya today.

In addition, Mustafar said the department will introduce the online renewal and application service next month to reduce queues at Immigration counters.

He said special counters will be made available for senior citizens, children, pregnant women and facilities for pilgrimage and emergency cases.

Mustafar said that currently, passports are being processed on the same day or latest by the next day if the applications are submitted in the evening.

“The Immigration Department wants to stress again that it is not true that an application for passport renewal takes about six months as published in local newspapers and on social media where the news went viral,” he said.

He said the old passport can still be used if it has not expired and there is no need to convert to the new passport.

Since Jan 1 to July 31, a total of 1,464,820 passports had been issued and for the month of August alone until Aug 8, the number issued was 76,253.

People are advised to plan and prepare for travel abroad early and check the status of the trip on the website www.imi.gov.my to avoid problems during the passport application process.

- Bernama