It was a busy weekend attending the solemnisation ceremony and the wedding reception of a friend’s daughter.

Nevertheless all I could think about was getting my new passport today.

I wondered what would actually happen. Would they really call me? I had no time to waste, waiting around for someone from Immigration to call so I went about my normal routine. Driving Danial to work. Hanging out with mum and my sister. And a lunch appointment with a BFF.

Then the call came. It was 11:30am and the lady said "your application for a new passport has been approved. You can come and make the payment and collect your passport."

Yippee! I was elated and made my third trip to the Subang Immigration office. I think the parking people know me by now. I went upstairs and spoke to the lady who had called me. I showed her the letter of acknowledgement Mr Abdul had given me when I submitted the documents last Wednesday. She printed the “approval letter” and gave it to me.

I was thankful that my application had been approved and in such a short time but I couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed that my new passport was only valid for 2 years.

I asked her why not 5 years? Could I appeal for a 5-year passport? And the reply was “Don’t push your luck!” LOL No, of course she didn’t say that at all. But she might as well have. She said that was the normal case for lost passports. You’re kind of on probation, I guess. Or was it a kind of penalty or punishment? It seems like it because I also had to pay RM300 (which was what was normally charged for 5-year validity passports). The normal fee for  2-year validity passports was RM100.

I was also given a terse WARNING and a reminder in the approval letter that Malaysian passports are the property of the Malaysian government and that I’m required to take proper care of it. In other words – DON’T LOSE IT.

I was asked to go downstairs to the main office and make my payment. The passport would take one hour.

I waited and got my passport before the one hour was up. A crisp clean new passport. With a remark typed in on one of the “Remarks” pages that I had previously travelled on passport number bla bla bla which had been reported lost on bla bla bla date. OK fair enough.

Anyway. I was relieved.

I rushed home to scan the passport and e-mail it to hubby who would kick off the process of applying for my re-entry visa from the Kuwait Ministry of the Interior. Thank God again for the 5-hour time difference. Now we’ll wait for a week before that’s done and then we can book my flight back to Kuwait.

Phew. Now time for lunch with my BFF at Pressroom. Time to breathe.

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