(last updated 29 May 2015)
1. As you know, we need everyone's original passport to shorten their work passes and dependant passes at the end of the contract.
2. Before describing the visa shortening process, please ensure you have the following:
- Sufficient passport pages. Shortening of the visa will take up a whole additional page. Please ensure you have additional pages for your exit stamps when you leave the country. If not, you need to get a new passport immediately.
- Inform Jonathan if you have acquired a new passport, and you were the one who did the visa transfer. There could be hiccups during the shortening process if the shortening documents do not tally.
- We will also need your e-ticket to shorten work/dependant passes.
3. We will be separating the shortening into 2 batches:
- 1st batch will be during the Zone Meeting and we will be shortening mentors who are based at rural locations
- 2nd batch will be the last week of August (24-28 Aug), as described below.
4. To avoid couriering, we will set up a system whereby passports are delivered by mentors to Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu, Miri and KK. There they will be handed over to a Kuching office staff member who will submit the passports to Immigration and then pick them up again (usually the next day) and hand them back to mentors. It is a fairly complicated jigsaw to put together, but it worked well last time.
5. For those who live far away from these main cities, we will ask one mentor to act as the courier and they will be put up in a hotel for a night. If there is a delay in processing by Immigration, the mentor will return to post and then travel down later in the week to pick up the passports. Limbang and Lawas are different - the courier would have to extend their stay as they could not travel back without their passport. A Kuching staff member will pick up the passports from Immigration. If the staff member has to leave before handing the passports back to mentors, then in Sibu we propose they are left with Shannon, in Miri with Sue Goodman, and in KK with Fiona Wright.
6. Immigration permitting, the work pass (and dependant passes for accompanying family members) will be cancelled so that staff have 1 day’s grace in which to leave the country after their last day of service. There will be no extensions of work passes beyond this date.
7. We are aware that some mentors have work passes which expire on 30 Sept or immediately before. We will contact you separately about this.
8. As mentioned in the end of contract flights section, you may receive a letter from Immigration stating the date you are leaving and the destination (likely in Sabah, possible in Labuan). If you change your ticket, we advise you not to offer to show this letter when leaving (experience so far is that they do not usually ask for it) as this has caused problems in the past.