Immigration office efficiency

Both my driving license and my passport expired in May, bad timing really since workload is a bit crazy lately. But oh well, gotta be done.

I posted about my JPJ experience a few days back, here's the Immigration office's.

27th May 2015, thanks to a 07:00 hours meeting that got cancelled at some ungodly hour between midnight and dawn, and the strangely lack of other morning meetings thereafter, I made an impromptu decision to go renew my expired passport, as I will be needing it soon.

I arrived at the Immigration office at 07:41 hours. There was a queue that stretched all the way to the outside of the building.

At 07:47 hours, I finally got to the front of the queue and got my number. 6 minutes for the first step. I was number #1074, and they were serving number #1008 then.

The Immigration office working hours start from 07:30 hours, so I was there 11 minutes after the door opened, and there were 73 people in front of me, wow... *cough* kiasu *cough*

After observing the process for a while, I deduced that I would probably be served some time around 09:30 hours, so I left the building and went for breakfast.

Back to the Immigration office at 08:20 hours after a leisurely breakfast, they were serving number #1025 then. It's going to be a long wait. -_-

There are four counters with photo booth, but at most two of them were manned that morning, often just one, while those of us waiting there started to sprout mushrooms.

At 09:52 hours, they were serving #1064. My brain has partially rotted from boredom and the waste of time.

Finally at 10:00 hours my number was called. Getting my thumbs printed, photo taken, and document signed took 6 minutes. That's step two done, 2 hours and 19 minutes after step one.

Then I was asked to wait again for payment. Seriously? You can't just let me pay there and then? Need to create a job position and an extra step for that? Pfft!

So again I waited, and thank all that's holy, unholy, devilish and whatever it's not another few hours but just minutes. I was called at 10:17 hours, 11 minutes after step two. I paid and was done with step three under 1 minute.

The officer told me I had to wait for an hour, then go take another number and play the waiting game again to collect my passport. Even though I know I could collect my passport some other day, I asked again just to be safe and left.

I just ain't got the luxury of waiting and wasting another hour, and good thing I left then, because an impromptu meeting was called and I managed to join, albeit 20 minutes late. What's up with all these last minute meeting changes? >_<

Anyway, 07:41 to 10:18 hours, that's 2 hours and 37 minutes for the first three steps.

I didn't have time on the next day, so it's only on 29th of May that I went to collect my passport. After the morning meetings, of course.

Arrived 09:43 hours, surprisingly no queue. I got number #2065 and they were serving #2053 then. Step four done.

While waiting, I observed that three out of the four counters with photo booth were manned that day. One of them being the special counter for senior citizens, which I think should serve the normal citizens when there is no senior citizen around.

My number was called at 09:53 hours, and by 09:54 hours I was done with the thumb print, signature and passport collection. 11 minutes.

So, if we include the one hour wait, then the whole process for a single day collection would take 3 hours and 48 minutes. Actual time spent at the counter was 8 minutes, the remaining 3 hours and 40 minutes wasted on waiting.

Sucks. Big time.

Efficiency series: |JPJ|