Post pandemic passport renewal

A lot has happened since the last passport renewal, mostly the pandemic. Only managed to use the passport once since borders reopened, so that's a couple years wasted. 

Anyway, they've announced that everyone else that's not young, old, disabled, etc, would have to renew their passports online which started last year, which kicked off everyone's grumbling.

One of the requirements was having to upload a fresh passport picture according the specified dimensions, which a lot of people have also tried to bypass by using apps instead of getting it done at a shop. (If you have the patience to fiddle around with that, then by all means; I just did mine at the photo shop in Atria, which has a lot of good reviews, and the turnaround is pretty fast - all done in under half an hour, and they even email the soft copy for uploading)

Once that was done, I went online, uploaded the picture, paid (can pay with card, yay), and then you wait.

I've read online that you could go and collect after 3 working days (probably less), so I went back to Jalan Duta. It was still as crowded and noisy as ever, and there were still a lot of kids (and their parents) getting their passports despite it being a school day.

Went upstairs, and after waiting like a dumbass for a few minutes in the small room, I went over to the big room for a queue number. Told the lady behind the counter that I had renewed online last week, but no update. Upon checking, turns out it was already approved few days earlier (so calendar days, not working days?), so I got a queue number from her, gave her my old passport and hard copy receipt, and went back to the small room I was in for my turn. I think it was at least a half hour wait before it was my turn to collect. (Killed the wait time playing the games on the shopping platform apps)

Wasn't long before I hit the most annoying roadblock: the biometric verification. This is when I was finally able to pull out the JPN chip content letter to let us both off the hook. And I had another hard copy for her records. Signed on it, got both old and new passports back and fucked off for lunch. It was so noisy in there we (or me) can hardly hear her behind the plexiglass.

PS. Was advised by the counter person to make plenty of copies of said letter for the airport, but I dunno if non-local airports are gonna accept it, so ya... 

Pros

• Can now pay by card or online banking
• No need to line up for renewal, just wait for collection

Cons

• Can't get it on same day (?)