KOTA KINABALU, July 12 — Malaysians will soon have the option to apply for a passport that will be valid for 10 years, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said today.
He said the Immigration Department is ready to introduce a 50-page passport double the time of the current five-year validity period, just like some other countries in South-east Asia.
“Yes we are ready to start issuing a 10-year passport like some of our neighbouring countries like Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.
“It will be optional, so those who want five years can still have it, while those who prefer a 10-year passport can pay a little bit more as it will also have more pages,” he said when opening a new passport office at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) here today.
He added that the Immigration Department had studied and found no issue with long-term passports since other countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and France have implemented them.
“We have decided we can also head in that direction,” he said.
Asked to elaborate on the expected launch date, Saifuddin Nasution said it will be “in the near future”, adding that he wanted to leave it open-ended for now.
“Before, I said we would study it and now we are ready. But the date of implementation is to be announced. I think that is clear, right? We will announce it later,” he said.
The federal minister also announced that Malaysians who have lost their personal identification documents in natural disasters like floods will be able to get replacements free of charge.
“We are aware that our country is flood prone. We are a hotspot. So our role here is to replace the identification documents.
“We will replace them for free without any extra charges. That is our commitment. And we are doing this now in many incidents where disaster strikes and people cannot save their documents, be it birth certificates or identity cards or others,” he said.
Saifuddin Nasution was also asked about plans to relocate the headquarters of agencies like the police and the Fire and Rescue Services Department which were also prone to floods and replied that it was under the jurisdiction of other authorities.
