JC1000

Hi,

First post here and am looking for some really good advice please.

I live in the UK (born in the UK) and have a Malaysian wife. We have been married for 3 years and she has indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

I’m 40 and she is 38 and we really want to move to KL in around 5 years time. Obviously this would not be a problem for her but I’m wondering how I would go about applying for residency.

I have been to Malaysia many times and really like the lifestyle, hence in my middle years I would like to move to sunnier and more chilled climate.

My main two questions revolve around people’s experiences and how easy it is to make the move. To this end please can I get advice on the below:

1. How easy is it to apply for Malaysian residency (not necessarily citizenship) but some kind of long term visa? How does one go about doing this? I understand the financial requirements and should be able to meet those.
I work in banking in London at the moment but my company has no presence in Malaysia. Hence I could not get a transfer and this leads me onto my second question.
2. Can one come over without a job? If you get a residence visa, is that also a work visa or is a work visa separate? I would clearly like to work in KL and that will be a big deciding factor in me coming over, obviously at 45 I probably could not retire yet! Are jobs easy to come by for Westerners once correct docs are in place? Are there a lot of banking jobs in KL?

I really appreciate any help/advise that others in a similar situation to me may have faced previously and how you may have overcome it.

Many thanks,
John

JC3

Hi John,

Welcome to the Malaysia Forum.

One way would be for you to apply for a Malaysia My Second Home pass (MM2H). This pass allows you to freely come and go to Malaysia, or stay for 10 years, and thereafter is renewable. But the MM2H pass does not permit you to take up full time employment (and I think permission for part-time employment under this pass is also very rarely granted).

For MM2H you have to show a regular monthly income, so it would be good to:
a) apply for MM2H whilst you are in salaried employment in the UK, and
b) possibly sooner rather than later, before the MM2H financial requirements (i.e. the amount of monthly income and amount of fixed deposit) become more stringent / higher, which is probable.

Having an MM2H pass would at least allow you to stay in Malaysia whilst seeking employment, although possibly this is frowned upon, I’m not sure). If you find a job you would definitely then need to change from your MM2H pass to some kind of employment visa before starting work.

Obviously life would be easier if you already worked for a bank that does have a presence in Malaysia such as HSBC, Standard Chartered, Citibank etc, and then seek a transfer.

Good luck!

JC3

JC1000

Thanks JC3
What you say makes a lot of sense especially around applying whilst still salaried in the UK. Wasn't necessarily aware I could do that
I will take these away and look more into.

SushiFan

I haven't investigated this, but doesn't Malaysia have a visa for spouses of Malaysian nationals?

The MM2H visa has indeed the disadvantage that it is not intended to allow you to take regular employment in Malaysia. And the hurdles for a Malaysian company to get Government approval to let them hire you for part-time (max. 20 hours/week) work are pretty high.

JC1000

Thanks sushifan
There are some conditions on Malysian spouses of which I need to look into further.
Please may I ask what people's situations are on here regarding work?
Do expats work, have retired or were work sponsored to move to malaysia?
Thanks all
John

InVinoVeritas

As JC3 mentioned you are not allowed to work in Malaysia under an MM2H visa although you are still allowed to work outside of Malaysia.

If you intend to work in Malaysia, you will need to go the Spouse Visa route.

By way of clarification, where you work depends mainly on where your employer is based as well as where you are paid.

JC1000

Hi
Thanks for your comment, JC3 comments were clear and I wasn't seeking clarification there.
My main concern was whether anyone has moved to Malaysia without work but found work whilst there, I.e how hard is it to apply for a full time work visa. Clearly a company would want that first before they look to employ you.
Understand that this might be slightly unusual , and the rules in malaysia are probably different to UK where we see large numbers of people (not just EU) who do obtain work permits here once legally allowed to reside here.

InVinoVeritas

I think normally it is the employer who applies for the work pass. I assume you have looked on the Malaysian Immigration website?

Portal Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia - Foreign Worker

JC1000

Thanks for the link. Will check it out

JC3

Hi John,

IVV's suggestion that you get a Spouse Visa looks to be the better way to go.

I think what you would need is:

A) A Working Permit for Spouse of Malaysian Citizen, AND
B) A Long Term Social Visit Pass (which might be a MM2H pass).

The relevant information is somewhat buried on the Immigration Department website, but looks promising - see:

Portal Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia - Working permit for Spouse of Malaysian Citizen

Here's what it says:

Working permit for Spouse of Malaysian Citizen
1.The foreign husband/wife is permitted to work in Malaysia without having to change their Social Visit Pass to the Employment Pass on condition that the spouse has acquired work approval from the Immigration Department.

2.The approval is in the form of an endorsement on the passport/travel document.

3.The endorsement is given free of charge. <

4.The endorsement entitles the holder to work in any legal profession.

5.The application for the endorsement can be made at the Visa, Pass and Permit Division Immigration Head Quarters or at the nearest state Immigration office.

6.The permit is effective any time after or during the submission of the Social Visit Pass.

7.The letter of application should be submitted together with a copy of the letter of appointment/company registration evidence, marriage certificate and a valid Long Term Social Visit Pass.


JC3

JC1000

Hi jc3
Thanks for the follow up. Appreciate you taking the time to look into such things for me.
I did show my wife the comments here and this has helped her have a better Idea of the requirements.
So hopefully will be able to get this all sorted before any move is made
Thanks all
John c.

bakedbean

I would suggest reading Bluenose1's topic here:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/malay...p-ltvp-811701/

As I understand it, from Bluenose's writing, there is no actual spouse visa as such. Unfortunately Bluenose has not posted on here for a while. I think he's busy with his own business and, yes, you can work under this route.