• 2023-03-08 10:07 AM

A TEENAGER has lost her Malaysian citizenship following a mix-up with her birth certificates, leaving her with three birth certificates and no identification card.

17-year-old Amanda Lam Kai Xin had appealed on her Facebook page pertaining to her obtaining her citizenship and is now looking for her biological mother to expedite the process.

“I was abandoned at KL Klinik Bersalin Sunway and was raised by my foster mother to this day,” she said.

Amanda also said that her birth certificate had to be re-registered by the government in 2009. However, her mother had not heard about this when she went to apply for her identification card at 12 years old.

“When I was 12 years old, my foster mother and I learned that the government had sent us a letter back in 2009 asking us to re-register, but we did not receive that (letter),” she added.

According to a report by Sin Chew Daily, she and her foster mother discovered that her birth certificate was not valid to apply for the identification card, and she was asked to head to the National Registration Department (JPN) in Putrajaya to check the document.

The process took four years until she turned 16 and received her second birth certificate but both her birth parents’ information was marked ‘unobtainable’ therefore losing her Malaysian citizenship.

Attempting to regain her citizenship, her adoptive parents were advised to go through the adoption process again and Amanda received her third birth certificate at the start of this year but still had not obtained her citizenship.

Amanda told the news portal that she had reported her case to her school and was told that she was now an international student and her fees now a foreign student’s one.