Tuesday, March 10, 2009

I finally made the long dreaded trip to embassy for passport renewal. arrived there 15 minutes before the opening time and the waiting area was already full and queue was already formed. when the gate finally opened the queue already reached chatsworth road. I'm not sure if the crowd is due to yesterday's public holiday. thankfully I realized the embassy's closed yesterday before I went down.

I exchanged my IC with visitor pass and went in. following my friend's advice, I entered the main building first to grab a queue number. not an easy task as the queue number-generating machine was not put in a prominent place. I passed it a few times, asked 2 times before finally found it. then I quickly went outside to have my photo taken. another queue number. 6 photos costed me a whooping $10 (application for passport renewal needs only 2 photos, mind you). although instructions were already pasted in the area, people tended to just ask around and the officer (read: mbak tukang fotonya) needed to keep telling them what to do.

armed with fresh-from-the-printer photos, I rushed back to the main building, only to find out that I needed to take another queue number. jeez. by then it was already very crowded, mostly by maids who needed to renew their passports, accompanied by their employers. that means there were at least 2 people crowding the place per 1 passport renewal.

upon submission of application form and documents, I made the payment, then submitted the receipt, and waited again for my name to be called to sign and put my thumbprint on the new passport. when I left the embassy, the queue was still there.

kudos to the new ambassador, though, or whoever enhanced the passport renewal policy, that now we only need to make 2 trips - submission and collection (down from previous 3 trips), that the fee is now only $40 (down from about $80 last time - couldn't really recall how much), that there is a separate cashier section that handles payment, that the photo booth is back to the embassy ground (it was moved to a dingy, unknown corner of orchard tower last time), that the application form is downloadable from the embassy's website, that required information can be found easily in the website. all in all the process is now more efficient.

as I'm feeling generous today, here're a few tips for passport renewal at the embassy, for whoever happens to stumble upon this blog. as a friend put it, "gue ga mau trip gue ke kbri sia-sia...":
- be there as early as possible
- bring IC to be exchanged at the entrance with the visitor pass
- the photo booth is now located at the embassy, outside the main building, near the canteen (go straight from entrance gate)
- queue number for phototaking and payment need to be made at the photocopy booth beside the photo booth
- bring exact amount of cash
- grab a queue number first before queuing up for the phototaking (there's no harm trying)
- the queue number-generating machine is located between counter 2 and counter 3, it is behind the pillar and is not visible from the entrance.

No comments: