hewvic

Hey there,

I will do a 5-month internship in Malaysia in 2009. The company (subsidiary of a European one) won´t apply for a work visa for me, instead I should do a visa-run after three months. The company pays a salary.

How legitimate is this? Will there be any problems with Malaysian officials? Will they notice?

Thanks.

ex reg

It's illegal to work without a work visa in most countries.

Unless you're consulting.

I think.

Will they be paying you locally or are they trying to get away without paying tax.

Most of us have done this type of thing though.
I wonder if the F1 guys in Singapore have a work visa?

Kooky.

Do you really want to move across the world (assumption there) for a company that has such blatantly dodgy practices? If it all goes belly up, you won't have a leg to stand on.

Bijilo123

The question of internship and work may be separate. Look up the rules for internships - they may be exempt from visa rules - they are in some countries, You may need an education visa though.

Good luck and enjoy.

hewvic

You mean working abroad without proper permit/visa and doing the visa-run?

What I know is that some of the companies get their interns a 6-month visa. But some other companies don´t.
I just wonder if anyone (e.g. police, immigration officials) will notice.

Bijilo123

Fair one - the issue is taking the risk or not.

Where I live (~Kuwait) you cannot employ on a temp basis and so the payment for the intern is made to the UK / US College who have an arrangement to pay back the intern. Works fine - complicated by tax but the amounts are not huge for the short duration. Worth asking about.

The point about earning in Malaysia is tax - if you pay that then all's well.

Malaysia has a double tax arrangement with UK and other countries so paying the tax there is erfectly acceptable to them.