PUBLISHED ONMay 26, 2026 12:40 PMBYSean LerThe Immigration Department of Malaysia (JIM) on Tuesday (May 26) announced that the rollout of the new Malaysian international passport will be postponed from its planned launch date of June 1.
In a media statement, JIM director-general Zakaria Shaaban said this is to ensure the smooth delivery of services.
"The public can still renew their existing passports as usual, and passports that are still valid will remain usable until their expiry date," Zakaria added.
JIM has not set a new date for the rollout, saying it will make the announcement through its official communications channels in due course.
In January this year, Malaysia's Home Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the new passport will be enhanced with "more advanced security features" to strengthen the document's integrity and reliability.
Saiduddin was reported by Bernama as saying the upgrade marks a key milestone given that the Malaysian passport is among the world's most trusted.
Announcing the initial launch date on May 19, Zakaria told Malaysian media that the new passport will have 94 security features, up from the current 49.
He said this will ensure the document is safer and more difficult to forge.
The rollout was to have been carried out at four offices on June 1: JIM's Putrajaya headquarters, the Kuala Lumpur Immigration Office, the Urban Transformation Centre passport office in Wangsa Maju and the Shah Alam Immigration Office.
The rollout was scheduled to have been extended to all JIM service branches by the end of July.
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