Malaysia : 'indefinite' Stay Without Mm2H Or Other Visa - Details

[gobbledonk]

A perennial favorite on this board is the 'should I relocate ?' thread, and a lot of the frustration seems to be around the Thai visa system, particularly 90-day reporting and Immigration stuffups when entering the country, This thread doesnt attempt to convince anyone that they might be happier in a country with a higher cost of living than Thailand, but unless your home country is outside the extensive list of '90-day stay on arrival' countries below, this thread may be of some interest to someone other than myself. Any discussion re the pros and cons of Malaysia as a longterm-stay destination belongs in another thread - please keep this to visa-related issues,

 

http://www.malaysia.org.au/travel6.html

 

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Flasher mentioned in another thread that he believed it was possible to extend your original '90-day' visa exemption stamp without having to leave the country. Per this blog entry from early 2012, you can do exactly that in KL:

 

http://www.travelfish.org/blogs/malaysia/2012/01/02/how-to-extend-your-malaysian-tourist-visa-social-visit-pass-in-kuala-lumpur/

 

You have to fill in a form and the cost in that article is 50 Ringgit - that wouldnt even get you a cab to KLIA/KLCCC, hence the 'healthy' crowd in that photo

 

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For those wanting a break from Malaysia, the obvious option is flying out of the country or crossing via Johor Bahru into Singapore - I've bolded sections of these interesting forum entries for my own reference. At the time of writing, these are reasonably current - as always, this thread will need to be updated to reflect any changes - I just wanted all the info to be in one place. Note the recommendations re staying out of the country for a few days, at least - in Singapore, that could be add up to a healthy hotel bill, but it's only money, right ?

 

http://www.expatypus.com/forum/malaysia/visas/visa-runs-options-long-term

 

28/1/2012

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I lived in Malaysia for many years on the 90-day visa with trips down to Singapore every 3 or 4 or 5 months - the 90-day visa can be extended up to 5 months.

The problem wasn't entry into Singapore, or exit from Singapore. The problem was exit from JB and queries as to me working in Malaysia. I said no, I'm not working. I always got an exit stamp with no real hassle. There was seldom a problem on entry back into Malaysia. The point is don't abuse the system with a quick in & out. Honestly some folks expect it all to go smoothly with a trip over the Causeway in the morning and pop back for another 90-days in the afternoon. Some folks just can't "go figure."

I was told by an expert very long-term 90-dayer that it needs a minimum of 5 days out of Malaysia and 2 or 3 weeks is better. And every year/every other year take a trip back home. How Malaysia's biometric entry/exit system has now impacted the 90-day visa runs I don't know.

 

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6/11/2012

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I did visa runs for 8 years on a US passport. About 10% of the time by road to Singapore, otherwise by air to various countries. I never did the same-day turnaround. Always stayed for a few days, or a week or longer if possible. By the end of those 8 years my passport had been extended several times and had over 100 pages, at least half them containing Malaysian stamps. It would have been impossible for any immigration officer not to notice. At the airport I never had any problems at all. One time at JB (second link) the Malaysian passport inspector asked me a few questions about why I was coming to Malaysia so much. I said I really liked it and had a lot of friends there... which was true. He asked one or two more questions and then stamped me in. That was the only time I was a little worried, but it turned out to be nothing. I was telecommuting from the USA, my work had nothing at all to do with Malaysia. I think that if you are doing visa runs and actually working in a Malaysian office or for a Malaysian company, you could get into real trouble. I have met people who have done visa runs for over 10 years.

 

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Personal experience most welcome.

 

Gobbledonk, March, 2013

[Flashermac]

As I mentioned, prices in Malaysia are a bit more expensive than Thailand, but not a great deal. I wonder why the folks you've quoted are so in love with Singapore. I met a few Brits in Georgetown, Penang, who told me they simply took the short train ride from Butterworth to Haadyai. Haadyai is much cheaper than Singapore. Not surprisingly, each of them had a Thai wife! There is a small Thai community in Georgetown. I met a Malaysian man whose wife was born in the same village as my own. They'd met when they both worked in a hotel in KL.

 

Add to the pluses of Malaysia:

 

1) No asinine liquor sales hours. Buy your beer or booze at the 7 Eleven 24 hours a day. (There is no law on the hours in Thailand, simply a "proclamation". Great when you can make up rules whenever you feel like it.)

 

2) Inexpensive Indian restaurants are everywhere, real ones where Indians roll up their sleeves and dig into the rice and curry with their hands.

 

Negative:

 

The nightlife is much smaller, harder to find and expensive. The choice isn't very good either.

[gobbledonk]

Re Singapore - I suspect that if you have a car and live anywhere south of KL, the land crossing in Johor must be very attractive, particularly if you want to buy a camera or whatever in Singapore - horses for courses. Not sure I'd want to spend 3 days in either location, but that's just me. Obviously, if I had a partner who spoke Southern Thai, things might be very different - personally, I'd rather just get on a plane if I was going to Thailand, but we all know where they plane would eventually take me. Once every 90 days, I dont see that as a wild extravagance

[huumlaar]

Camera's aren't that cheap in Sillypore anymore, Hong Kong significantly cheaper for the first time in a long time.