In_transit

Good Day everyone.
We (me and me missus) is planning our relocation to Malaysia. I have a wee question and was wondering if anyone has been through similar situation.

The company is processing the work permit and the dependent pass. I was told by the HR that the passport of my wife has to be valid for 2 years. Now! the problem is that her passport (french) expires in 15 months. If we apply for a new passport for her, it will take atleast 2-3 weeks and that would delay the start date which is not an option.

so any suggestions as to what our options are here ?
Can we get a dependent pass for 15 months and apply again near its expiry ? get the work permit and apply for dependent pass once in Malaysia (after renewing her passport)?

Cheers

bakedbean

Just to say hello and welcome to the forum . I'm retired and no experience of working in Malaysia so cannot help you. Hopefully someone will be along to help soonest.

ajw

Hello,

Not sure what to suggest. Some embassies/passport services run an express service for new passports so you can get them in 24-48 hours for an extra fee.

We did not have the actual work permit in place when we arrived in Malaysia, that came after. We showed immigration a letter from the company saying that the application was in progress. So perhaps you could do this and get the new passport after your arrival in Malaysia?

Good Luck.

Bluenose1

Just a thought for what it's worth..... How long can a French National enter Malaysia for? If it's the same as UK then it would be 90 days. Why not enter as a visitor, then apply to the French Embassy for a new passport. Your employer could then apply for the Dependent Visa. Would that not work?

In_transit

Thanks for the reply bakedbeans, ajw and bluenose1.

@bluenose - French nationals can enter Malaysia for 3 months without Visa! However, I discussed the options recommended by you guys with the HR lady and she recommended that we can just get the dependent pass for 15-16 months to start with and then we can reapply for dependent pass after renewing passport to cover the 2 years period. so that is one problem solved I guess!!

however!!! I have another issue now.......... so we got married in scotland and our marriage certificate was issued from Edinburgh. Now for Dependent pass, we were told to get the marriage certificate "legalised" by "FCO" and then "certified" by "Malaysian High Comission"........ seems quiet simple!! but when you consider that I am temporarily in Pakistan its totally a different situation!!

Tried calling FCO office all day to get information about legalisation and no reply... eventually got hold of some gentleman in some other department (child registration) and asked him that we dialed this branch as no one replied from legalisation dept. On explaining the whole thing to him, I was shocked to hear that FCO doesnt do legalisation of documents. I did argue with him for some time that it says on their website that they do legalisation of documents but he insisted that its nothing to do with FCO.....

I can send documents to FCO in UK but that will take more than a week and I have to submit the documents in the next 10 days.

soooooooo any way out of it!!!?? can I get documents certified by Malaysian High commission without getting them legalised first?

Appreciate any suggestion!!

Bluenose1

I have to say I find this an interesting scenario! Not understanding all the legalities, I'm not sure why you have to have your marriage "legalised" - were you married in The Church Of Scotland, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Catholic, Mormon, Quaker, Muslim, Orthodox, Jewish (have I missed any other faith?) or Civil? Does it actually matter? Surely a solemnized (hate the use of the 'Z' but probably warranted in this situation!) marriage is legal? I am a little surprised as I would have though any marriage legally recognised in the UK (and I think [but I don't actually know for certain] that all of the above would be recognised in the U.K.) would have been accepted by Malaysia. However, I think I would check firstly with the Malaysian High Commission in Pakistan (might as well seeing as that is where you are based!) to find out whether you can simply use a Notary Public to give a sworn statement (be that in Pakistan or when you get to Malaysia) that you are legally married to see if that is acceptable.

My wife and I were married in Malaysia and we were supposed to obtain a letter from the British High Commission in KL, but the day I turned up to get it, there was no-one at the High Commission able to sign the letter. We went to Immigration at Putra Jaya and they accepted a) my Decree Absolute together with b) my sworn statement to a Malaysian Notary Public that I was free to marry as proof that we could get married. We DID need the letter when we presented ourselves to the Islamic Authorities in Melaka, but I had received that by then. However, as I said, we got past the Immigration Department with just the sworn statement. So maybe the Malaysian High Commission could certify based on the statement?

Interestingly, and a little to my surprise, the U.K. actually recognised our Malaysian Islamic Marriage (the Home Office website at the time did NOT include Malaysia as a country where marriages were recognised, even though Malaysia is part of the Commonwealth!) and granted my wife a Spouse Visa - our Wedding Certificate is in Bahasa Melayu, although we did obtain (and provide to the HO) a translation (at cost) provided by the Malaysian High Commission in London.

Surely nothing to lose in asking the question?

Bluenose1

I should have mentioned (but thought I had rambled on long enough!!!) I do appreciate that Scots Law and English Law are both different and recognised in the U.K as being different!

In_transit

@Blunose1: Thanks for your reply. My marriage is obviously legal and recognized all over the world. The Marriage Certificate I have, has been issued from Edinburgh City Council and was accepted by French Authorities too as my wife is French.
It is the actual Marriage Certificate Document that needs to be legalised by British High Commission as being an OFFICIAL DOCUMENT and not a fake! And once this is done, I was told by Malaysian High Commission that the doc would then be endorsed by them as an AUTHENTIC DOCUMENT and I would be able to send it to the employer who would then send it to Malaysian Immigration Office for process of the visa.
I don't think a sworn statement would have been enough to prove my British marriage. Maybe the fact that you got married on Malaysian ground helped.

Now, my main concern is the following:

Do I need to send my Marriage Certificate for Legalization to FCO in UK or does any of you know if UK Embassies abroad do legalize British Documents too?
Is there any precedence that Malaysian High Commission has certified British Marriage Certificates without them being legalized by British High Commission?

bakedbean

A friend here in Penang had some dealings with a nice lady at the British Embassy in Kuala Lumpur recently. I'll see if I can get contact info and pass on to you. She was very helpful apparently.

In_transit

@bakedbean: Thanks a lot, it would be very much appreciated indeed, if I could get the info as I am sure I'll be visiting British Embassy in KL sometime soon.

Oh and I just found out that UK High Commissions abroad DO NOT legalize British Documents in Commonwealth Countries. They just don't have the power to do that.

Now I'm trying to find out if a local (Pakistani) Notary Public Certification could be endorsed by Malaysian High Commission and finally be accepted by Malaysian Immigration...

Will share once I know the procedure!

TravellingKate

Are you absolutely sure it's necessary? I'm going tomorrow, WITHOUT a certified copy, having read this on immigration website:

Proof of relationship with the Expatriate (a translated copy has to be certified by an Embassy official if the document is neither written in English nor in the Malay Language).

As our certificate is in English, I've not bothered getting it certified. Will let you know how it goes... But i've been down to immigration before - gotta say, they're pretty relaxed!

TravellingKate

OK, a few things.

First of all, no success - they wouldn't let me apply for it for myself, said the company has to do it for me. Crock of crap. Another spouse I know did his own just before Christmas! And of course there's no information on their website saying this. Expensive waste of a morning.

Didn't get as far as asking about marriage certificate, obviously.

One thing I notice in your post though In Transit - not really sure of the point of asking for a 15-16 month visa, as you pay 90RM per year or part thereof, so you are effectively going to be paying for 3 years when you only need 2. If your work pays I guess it doesn't matter. I would just get 12 months then apply again in 12 months.

Bluenose1

That stacks up! The letter that I required actually says something along the lines of:

"..... The Malaysian Authorities require the British Government to confirm that you are free to marry. The British Government will give no such undertaking......." Effectively, the letter doesn't say anything useful, but you cannot get married in Malaysia without receiving that letter! As I said though, because I had my original Decree Absolute, and a sworn statement given to a Malaysian Notary Public, we got the approval we needed from Putra Jaya. Having said that, I firmly believe that was only because my (then) fiancée and her sister were there and spoke to them in Bahasa Melayu. It actually took the best part of 3 hours to convince them! (Never actually saw any money change hands, but it wouldn't have surprised me if a donation to some benevolent fund or other was made. My (now) wife says not, though!).