Putrajaya: The Immigration Department is extending the operating hours of eight passport branches from 8am to 10pm from Nov 17 to Dec 31 to facilitate public dealings during the school holidays.

Immigration director-general Datuk Alias Ahmad said the Immigration offices with extended opening hours would be the Jalan Duta and Wangsa Maju offices in Kuala Lumpur, Kelana Jaya and Shah Alam (Selangor), Precinct 15 (Putrajaya) and Setia Tropika (Johor Baru).

Apart from that, he said the Immigration offices at the Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) in Malacca and the UTC in Kuala Lumpur (Pudu Sentral) would also be extending similar opening hours.

"Operations at all these offices will only be closed on public holidays. Other offices will be operating as usual," he said in a statement, here, on Wednesday.

Alias said this year, the Immigration Department had processed and issued 200,000 Malaysian international passports a month and the number was expected to increase during the school holidays.

"The Immigration Department advises the public to plan early to avoid any inconvenience when dealing with the offices," he said. - Bernama