SINGAPORE - After recent complaints of long queues at its premises, the High Commission of Malaysia in Singapore has reportedly stopped accepting walk-in applicants looking to renew their passports.
The sudden move resulted in more than 400 people being turned away on Monday (March 22) morning despite some having lined up since midnight, according to Chinese-language newspaper Shin Min Daily News. It was reported last week that the consulate previously had a daily limit of 30 walk-in applicants.
When The Straits Times visited the consulate in Jervois Road on Monday evening, a security guard confirmed that from this week, only those with appointments will be let in.
The security guard did not say why the consulate stopped accepting walk-ins this week, only that this was in response to recent complaints.
Among those caught unawares by the sudden change on Monday was Ms Chin, a permanent resident from Malaysia who declined to give her full name.
She said she started queueing at the consulate at about 5am, but was turned away at 9.40am.
This was the second time she had left empty-handed. She said she had queued for three hours last Thursday but was later told the system was down. She took leave from work to try again on Monday morning.
While the queue was shorter compared with last week, she said the officers were much stricter.
She told ST in Mandarin: "Only those with an e-mail from the high commission and those with appointments could go in. There were people whose work permits were expiring and needed a new passport, but they were told that this was not the consulate's problem."
Ms Chin, 32, who works in customer service, said she had applied online in January to renew her passport, which expires at the end of the month. She decided to go to the consulate last week as she had no word about her application and she needed a new passport as her company plans to send her to Macau for training.
She tried to book an appointment online, but there were no slots until May 21, she said.
After being turned away on Monday, Ms Chin said: "The worst part is we are not told exactly how many people are allowed into the consulate. If there is a limit, they should tell those in the queue and not let people just wait there."
Malaysia's Immigration Department said last Saturday that action is being taken to resolve the congestion, and eight more officers will be stationed at the consulate here from this week to speed things up.
Correction note: An earlier version of this story said that notices posted online and on the front gate of the High Commission of Malaysia had said that the consulate's immigration department would be temporarily closed to walk-in passport applications from March 30 this year until further notice due to Covid-19. This is inaccurate as the notices were for temporary closures that began on March 30 last year. The high commission had resumed walk-in applications for passport renewals in December, according to its Facebook page. We are sorry for the error.
