Envelopes marked ‘Urusan Seri Paduka Baginda‘ always fill my heart with dread for some reason. That phrase, loosely translated to ‘Affairs of His Majesty’ [NB: Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy] marks envelopes containing official letters come from government agencies, like Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (Bureau of Internal Revenue) and Imigresen Malaysia (Malaysian Immigration).
So when DH handed me such an envelope early Wednesday morning last week, I hastily opened the letter, my eyes scanning the letterhead — Imigresen Malaysia — and the first line of the first paragraph to see if it contained ‘dukacita‘, i.e. regretfully, which always means bad news, or ‘sukacita‘, i.e. with pleasure, which, of course, means good news.
The letter started with sukacita but it took a few minutes to for the implications of the letter to sink into my groggy consciousness.
Permohonan Permit Masuk bagi: (Application for Entry Permit For)
<my name>
Dengan hormatnya saya merujuk kepada perkara diatas dan sukacita dimaklumkan bahawa permohonan puan diluluskan. (With respect, I refer to the above matter and, with pleasure, I wish to inform you that your application for the same has been approved.)
I did it! Fourteen years of marriage and five children later, I finally get the long-awaited approval for my application for a Malaysian PR (permanent residence)! This marks the end of countless visits to Immigration office. To give you an idea of what I had to go through, I started with a 15-day visa, then 30-day visas (3 times, I think), followed by 3-month visas (3 times?), 6-month visas (2 or 3 times?), then yearly visas (5 of them), each time going there with my long-suffering husband in order to prove that the marriage does exist and that we are still together. I was only able to apply for PR after the 5th yearly visa, which was about 2 years ago. [NB: Malaysian men: If you're thinking of getting a foreign wife, better brace yourself for all this hassle!]
Of course, I have one more visit to make to the main office of Imigresen Malaysia in Putrajaya to submit a bank draft for RM120 (~USD38), a letter of oath signed by my husband and I certifying that we are still married and still together (‘perkahwinan masih kekal‘), my most recent passport-sized photographs, etc for the processing of my PR.
So what comes next? I checked with my cousin to find out. She is also married to a Malaysian and has been in Malaysia for about the same length of time as me. She told me that it took almost 2 years for her to get her red IC (Identity Card) after submission of the bank draft and documents. [NB: Malaysian citizens have blue ICs.] But — here is the big but — she told me that I will still hold a Philippine passport; the only difference is that I won’t have to go to Imigresen anymore to renew my visa every year. She added that she was told that it is possible to apply for citizenship but she’s quite unclear about the procedure.
I guess I’ll just have to take this one step at a time. It’s been a long and winding road but I am thankful to God that I am finally past the first hurdle.
Congratulations! That sounds like quite the struggle and I’m glad you are on your path!
Alhamdulillah….congrats kak Mimi……i’m still waiting for my husband’s……….another year till we can apply :-(
Congratulations!It was worth the long wait, wasn’t it?
Jessi: Thanks. It felt like forever!
Shireen: Oh ye ke? Mmg kena byk sabar :(
bertN: Thanks.
Congratulation…we welcome u aboard as Malaysian permenant resident…
Congratulations, Mimi….Am very happy for you….
Mi, my hubby has just got the “sukacita” last June after 15 years..finally..alhamdulillah. However, in my case, I did not have to go to immigration along with my hubby to prove that our marriage is still exist..
Congrats, Mimi. Ang hirap palang mag-apply ng PR dyan. Lalo na siguro if you’re applying for citizenship.
Funny to think you’re the only foreigner in your family.
thats something to think about eh, when marrying a foreign national. In France, two years of marriage, I got the ten years res permit, then 4th year of marriage i got the go for citizenship, but not all have the go because of some difficult docs to process and THAT dreary french language.
Bon, thats one step for you,MIMI, you avoid a lot of money spending to visa every year.If I were you, get that malaysian cit, even that difficult to process, because the laws changes every minute everywhere.
Your children are malaysian cit now, are they?
Congratulations, Mimi! That’s indeed a long and winding road.
tahniah kak!
looking forward to reading your post about fasting month of ramadhan and hari raya!
Alhamdulillah syukur. Perjalanan ke PR memang amat panjang dan berliku-liku. Next step: kerakyatan Malaysia pulak! InsyaAllah ;)
Praise be to God. The road to a Malaysian PR is truly long and winding indeed. Next step: Malaysian citizenship. God-willing ;)
Syed Heidzir: I’ve written something about Ramadhan in 2008 and it’s still quite relevant: http://www.sleeplessinkl.com/2008/09/01/ramadhan-in-malaysia. The only thing that changed is the cost of the buka puasa buffets!
Congratulations, Mimi! That was indeed a long ride. If you apply for M’sian citizenship, can you still keep your Phillippines citizenship also? I am thinking of obtaining US citizenship and keeping my Malaysian citizenship too, however, I learned that M’sia only allow its rakyat to hold one citizenship.
I’m not sure re: Philippines allowing dual citizenship. But I’m aware of Malaysia’s policy on that.
Congratulations! It seems like a really long and twisted journey for you. That’s the best Ramadhan gift for you.
Salam Sister,I am a (Cape Malay) South African passport…I spent 8years in New Zealand (2001-2009)and got my residence there after only three years…I am now the husband of a malaysian citizen,(married in Malaysia) for the past 1 and a half years and permanently residing here,my off-shore work takes me out of Malaysia at least 6 times a year..I need not mention how painstaking the many visa applications are every time I need to go to Batam etc.Is there some way,on account of my work,that I can apply for early residence.PR. I know of an instance in NZ where a friend of mine in the same line of work applied for early citizenship….AND HE WAS SUCCESSFUL.!
Wa salaam Hoosain
Hoosain: Peace to you too. As far as I know, Malaysian Immigration Dept follows a certain set of procedures very strictly. There are slight changes in policies every now and then but they adhere to procedure strongly. Although ppl always tell me that if you know someone ‘inside’, things might get expedited… Wallahu a’lam.
yeah msian govt shd be more open minded. now global oredi. i am a msian female, going to marry a foreigner (kashmir)..still lookin for d procedures..boring ! i hate rules ! why shd govt make life difficult? stewpid msian govt !!!
hi sis,
so have u got ur red ic yet?? :-)
mak kaypoh: I luv yr nick ;) I’ve already applied for a red IC. God-willing, it should be ready next month (May). Will definitely blog about it once I have it in my hands!
Hi Mimi… Congratulations! My wife is a Malaysian citizen and I have been in Malaysia for 9 years. The first time I applied for PR in Feb. 2007, but my application was rejected by the Immigration Selangor without any reasons. After this, I submitted appeal to the Home Office. Unfortunately, my appeal was still rejected without any reasons in Dec. 2009. And I was told that I cannot re-submit a new application within a year from Dec. 2009. So I re-submitted a new application to the Immigration HQ (Putra Jaya) in Dec. 2010. But I have not received any feedback from them. And I have not received a notice for interview with the Police. Could you tell me when you submitted your application and how long you waited for the approval? Thank you very much…
i would like to ask about who is signing the sponsor on the back of the form?
the husband or someone of a malaysians origin?
i am preparing the forms to submit.
Thanks
Hi Ben… suppose your Malaysian spouse is the sponsor of your PR application and signs at the back of the application form (Imm.4). I did it twice.
Kevin, thanks for answering Ben’s question. I also would have answered the same way. My Malaysian spouse was my PR application sponsor.
Nice to see you got the much awaited PR. I heard that after you get PR you can apply for Malaysian citizenship (Blue IC) in two years time.
I am still waiting for my PR despite being here for 20 years almost and applying for PR in 2000 lol. Hope it come soon though, maybe a Raya gift?
Allah bless
Hi Kazi. I asked Immigration about it but they were really vague. I hope you get your PR soon. I understand how frustrating the long wait can be!
so hw apply p.r
so mcm mana dapat permit masuk
maingajer: easiest way: foreign woman marries malaysian citizen. if foreign man to malaysian citizen, also possible but more difficult and may take even longer.
first, congratulations to you for having managed to get PR, my girlfriend is from philiphine and I want to ask questions regarding the visa, after registration of marriage, can she apply for a visa to stay longer in Malaysia? When the time my girlfriend can apply for PR after the marriage? is it after 5 years of stay at Malaysia? is it whether to renew the visa involved need my girlfriend to go back to philiphine each time to renew it?
I hope ms.mimi help us in this concern. Our journey is still far away, we are proud if somebody can provide guidance on all proseduer of gaining PR. Thank you. :)
OCt: As soon as you get your marriage certificate, go to Immigration (Damansara or Putrajaya) to open a file for her. She will get Social Visit Pass as wife of a Malaysian citizen. Initially, it will only be a short-term pass and you will be making frequent visits to Immigration. I’m not sure what the latest policy is but in my case, I could only apply for PR after getting one-year visas five times in a row. And no, it is not necessary for her go back to renew the visa everytime. Just go to Immigration office.
Thank you for the useful information answer :) . the visit to immigration office can be done at any branch such as like the immigration branch at Kuching, Miri-Brunei border immigration, or Kota Kinabalu’s immigration branch asides from the main immigration office at Putrajaya or Damansara? thanks.
OCt: I’m not quite sure about East Malaysia but logically, it should be possible; I’m just not sure exactly which branch. My experience is limited to Damansara and Putrajaya only. Sorry.
Hi Sis, so how long you have to wait before you can get the PR IC upon payment of draft amount?
Hi Mimi!
Congratulations on your PR eventhough it took quite sometime but at least finally you got it.
My journey getting my PR in Malaysia didnt take that long. I was married in 2004 and followed exactly the 5-years continous stay in Malaysia. On the 6th year, i submitted my application and followed by 3 interviews in the same year. Exactly after 1 year from the last interview i got the approval letter. Went to Putrajaya to to get the PR Certificate and apply for the red IC…after 1 month i collected my IC from Petaling Jaya – NRD.
Nowadays, it is not that difficult anymore to get work permit too, when you are married to Malaysia. I have colleague in the office, she got married in Nov. 2011 and she is working in our office now.. she didnt have any problem getting the work permit.
Thanks, Tess. You are one of the lucky ones then :)
sis.. what can we expect as a PR here? I understand we cannot buy a house though with threshold level below 500k.. that’s a bit sad as a PR, we are still treated as a foreigner. But I know we can work here with a PR right? How about applying for KWSP, are we eligible?
good day and Salam ..
i just want to ask ..if you are married to a malaysian and you apply for the PR right away..how long should your marriage be before you can get the PR? ..do they require how long should be the marriage? ..and just in case ..do you know if the releasing of working permit has stop already or still on going? …Thank you (for future response) and Congratulations as well =’)
Mak Kaypoh: You can buy a house lah but your husband may have to take the loan with you. Foreign spouses can now work even without PR. But I’m not sure re: KWSP. With the red IC that comes with my PR, banking is so much easier now. All other transactions involving IC/passport also easier for me because I always had difficulty remembering my passport number because I keep changing my passports due to my frequent travels. With red IC, I also go thru the Malaysian lane now at Immigration — saves me a lot of time bec foreigners’ queue is usually always very long! Oh and I also go to government clinics and not have to pay a single sen.
Chin: The policies vary from time to time. But what I know is that you have to get the 1-year visa 5 times before you can apply. That means, around 6 years of marriage lah because prior to getting the 1-year visa, you’ll be getting shorter ones first. Work permit still ongoing.