UTC Johor

First time went to the UTC Johor today to renew passport as well as driving licence. Decided not to go to High Comm since I needed to renew my expired driving licence as well. UTC allows me to settle both in one shot.

Read from online info that UTC opens at 8.30am daily. Judging that it was Sunday and school holidays are near, surely there would be a huge crowd. In order to beat the crowd, I decided to set off early.

How early?

Basically, I woke up at 6am (6am on a Sunday!!!) and was on my way by 6.30am. Reached Woodlands checkpoint at 7.30am and cleared both customs by 8.05am. That left me plenty of time to walk from CIQ to the UTC. I arrived there at 8.20am, 10 minutes before the doors were opened.

I was rather surprised that there were so few people waiting for the doors to be opened. I was expecting a huge crowd as I thought many people would be as smart as me.

At 8.30am sharp, the security guard opened the doors. I promptly walked through the doors.

It was then I realised my stupidity.

The moment I stepped into the complex, I heard whistles blaring away, as well as a huge commotion. I looked towards the higher floors and saw a scene I would never forget- there were at least a hundred people on the second and third floors running towards the fourth floor, where the UTC is located. People were dashing up escalators, some with young children in tow, while elderly folks were left behind in the mad race. It then dawned upon me, there was more than one entrance to the complex, and being an idiot, I entered through the one located on the lowest floor. Those smart people ahead of me entered through more strategically located doors on the second and third floors, and ended up gaining a huge advantage.

As the queue built up within seconds, I found myself miles away from the start of the queue. It took 40 minutes before it was my turn to collect my number: 1155. From the queue ticket, I inferred that 114 people were smarter than me (or had faster legs).

The painful wait for my number to be called then began. The crowd was so thick that it spilled into the corridors. There were babies crying and old folks bending over from the tiring wait while the limited seats went to those who could get their bums onto the empty ones faster than the next fastest person. Above all, there was the constant din of numbers being called and officers shouting for the names of people to collect their passports. Worse than pasar!

I stood around for a while to gauge how fast the numbers were called. I figured I had a good chance to settle my driving licence in the mean time. Went up to the security officer to ask for directions to the JPJ office and found out it was located one floor above. When I reached there, there was no queue at all. I collected my queue ticket and my number was called instantly. Within 15 minutes, I had my new driving licence in my hands.

Back to the passport section. I managed to find myself a tiny space to stand near one of the corners where I could see the electronic number board. When my turn finally arrived, I had stood there for 95 minutes. I jostled my way through the crowd to reach the counter before the officer called my number for the third time (was very scared he might skip my turn if I did not reach fast enough). I submitted my old passport and IC, had my fingerprints taken, and stared into the camera for my shagged look to be taken (and to be printed forever onto my new passport). I was then told to rejoin the queue for my number to be called again, this time to make the payment.

Another 15 minutes passed before my number was called. Made the payment and collected the receipt. On the receipt, a message was scribbled in red ink: please drop this receipt into the yellow box at counters 8/9 at the specified time: 12.15pm (in Bahasa Melayu of course). Being the good citizen I am, I decided to follow the instruction and to grab something to eat in the meantime because god knows how long more I have to wait after that.

Used the ample time to take a leisurely lunch at one of the shops downstairs. Went back into the war zone at 12.10pm and proceeded to counters 8/9. In the yellow box, there was a heap of receipts with specified timings ranging from 12pm to 12.30pm. Hmm looks like I am being an idiot again!

From my observation, I noticed that for the collection of new passports, the officer would call out the person's name verbally, and not the queue number using the electronic system. Although there were loudspeakers installed at the two counters, the officers did not consistently use them and their voices were often drowned out by the din. That explains why there was a dense crowd in front of counters 8/9. Those were the people propping up their ears, waiting for their names to be called. I stood among them and listened intently for my name.

At last, it was my turn! I collected my new passport from the officer, signed on one of the pages, and checked through to ensure the particulars were correct. Couldn't help being moody about the black-and-white photo on the main page showing my shagged face. But finally, my ordeal was over!

Timeline of events:

0830 - doors to the complex opened

0910 - collected queue ticket

1100 - queue number called

1115 - payment made

1215 - submitted receipt

1220 - collected new passport

In retrospect, it was a good move to arrive early as the crowd was as huge as expected. The biggest difference in the waiting time would have been decided by which door one entered the complex when the doors were opened at 8.30am. If only I was wiser!

To avoid repeating my mistake, here is something useful:

Layout of the building:

2F (UTC is here)

1F (has an entrance)

G (has another entrance)

LG (the entrance facing Jalan Trus, from which I entered)

To summarise my experience, it was not entirely pleasant but it turned out to be better than expected. Given the existing system and the crowd, I must say that being able to settle everything within 4 hours was better than expected (I was expecting late afternoon). The officers on duty deserved to be commended for their valiant effort in crowd control and for being as efficient as possible under such stressful conditions (all counters were opened, minimal gap between numbers being called, supervisors were present at all times, those I met were quite friendly). Another praise-worthy observation was the existence of two counters specially for senior citizens and young children. An officer was constantly looking out for them in the long queue and directing them to the two counters to bypass the queue. Last but not least, unlike in the past when there were lots of forms to be filled, documents to be submitted and separate queues for photos to be taken, this time only the old passport and IC were required, no forms needed to be filled, and photos were taken one-stop at the same counter.

Nonetheless, much more can be done to improve the experience. A great leap forward will be to make online application available (best for those tech-savvy enough), so one needs to be physically present only to collect the new passport (and perhaps make payment, but online payment would be greatly welcomed too). Wonder when that day will come.