PUTRAJAYA: The maximum 10-year validity period for the Malaysian International Passport (PMA) will continue as usual, as implemented on July 1, says Immigration director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban.
He said instead, the issuance of PMAs with a validity period exceeding 10 years would be, ending the previous practice of granting a total validity period of 10 years and six months.
“First, I want to stress that the 10-year PMA validity will not be discontinued and will continue as usual, as implemented on July 1.
“What we will discontinue, however, is the additional period beyond 10 years. Previously, when applicants renewed their passport for 10 years, we gave them an additional six months,” he said.
Zakaria said the additional six months was initially introduced to help Malaysians who still had significant validity remaining on their old passports when applying for renewal.
“So that Malaysians would not lose out on the remaining validity, we gave them an extra six months. Our intention was to help Malaysians,” he said.
He added that difficulties had subsequently been faced by Malaysians as some airline systems did not recognise PMAs with a validity period exceeding 10 years.
“Following this, action was taken to offer free replacement passports to those who had already been issued passports with a validity period of 10 years and six months,” he said.
Zakaria added that the department had referred the matter to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which responded that there was no restriction against PMAs having a validity period exceeding 10 years.
