As I view any news related to the possibility of getting Malaysian PR with a skeptical eye, I’ve been saying that even if the government were serious about this whole PR thing it would still take a long time for me to get PR. Why? Well, I’ve been aware for some time now that there was a huge backlog of PR applications sitting in a pile somewhere. I thought there were about 5,500 applications, but the Home Minister recently stated that there were actually 16,812. I don’t think I have to explain how a sentence with the words government, inefficiency, and backlog sounds much, much worse when that number is added into the mix. Ever the skeptic, I thought that was the catch: they’ll give me PR, but they’ll spend years going through that pile first.
However, over the weekend the Home Ministry proudly announced that it had driven its employees like pistons and cleared over 140,000 applications, including those 16,812 applications for PR. Wow, that is pretty impressive, though I hope the speed wasn’t the result of having one guy go through the pile with a big stamp that says REJECTED. (See? I can’t turn off the skepticism here.)
Still, it is a positive sign; I look forward to seeing more of those.
Tagged: immigration, Malaysia
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Hey Jordon,
Somewhat related news is that JPN has redesigned their birth certificates again. For the first time, the race of the child is listed right on the cert. As you know, in the past it listed the race of the mother and father but not the kid, leaving the child’s race undetermined. Well not anymore - the kid takes the father’s race and now I have my first official European child, haha, though in fact the JPN told me all my kids are in the computer as Euro. Just thought I’d tell ya, in case you were as confused as I was about it. I asked to be listed as American, but that’s not a recognized category, apparently. I don’t suppose Canadian is either. :-)
Well now that’s really interesting. I wrote about my only experience registering the birth of a child in Malaysia (so far anyway) a while back: http://macvaysia.com/2006/09/23/weekend-musings-3-a-european-muslim-on-not-being-european/
It’s funny the default for us is European, because when I registered Al’s birth in Shah Alam in 2006, European is exactly what I put for my ”keturunan’, not because that’s what they suggested, but because I refused to put (ugh) ‘White’ or (double ugh) ‘Caucasian’, and like you said, ‘Canadian’ doesn’t seem to fit. So I guess it’s a good thing I did go with European, since that’s what they’ll consider him (and his little brother) anyway.
Interesting how a very European is an option (completely ignoring distinctions between various cultures within Europe), but Asian is not; someone of Asian ancestry has to be either Malay or Chinese etc.
I guess I’ll find out more about this when I go to register A2. Thanks for the heads-up, bro!
Hey I didn’t realize Al’s middle name was Imran! Great minds think alike.
So the next riddle is whether they are bumiputra or not. There was a big stink in the local papers a few weeks back about an Iban father married to a Chinese mother whose kid was Iban (following the father) but not bumiputera (both have to bumi to produce bumi in Sarawak). So we got an Iban who is not a bumi. Meanwhile my eldest is officially European, but bumi since only one parent has to be bumi to produce bumi in West Malaysia. Heh. On that note, The wife and I just watched “Skin” last night, the true story about the black girl born to two white parents in South Africa during Apartheid. Worth a watch if you can locate it.
Thought I let you know, my eldest child (American father and Chinese mother), was officially registered as a Chinese on his Malaysian identity card. He just turned 12, you’ve got to do it before 2/3 weeks after this twelveth b. day. On the birth certificate, he is considered European. I see from you updates that have not update the database since 1997 (it’s been more than a decade).
Another note is the spouse program no longer valid. We’ve been using it the past 10 years, the present Jangka masa panjang social pass (it’s quite funny, the form states long term social visit but they are going to give him a 6 months social cum working visa, which is shorter than what he had a 2 year work permit). We better downgrade my husbands occupation to domestic help at least they get 2 years.
Concerning the PR. I really do not know if he qualifies. Paid taxes, establish company, bring in new technology, but PR-never darted to venture to that zone. The past 14 years, we’ve asked verbally but have never submitted any papers because ( TENTU reject) most of the officers have repeatedly told us it will be rejected, then we can appeal. So why bother? Also if you are American and want to apply as an investor the min amount to show you are an investor is USD2 million. I think this amount is higher than an Australian PR.
Cheers.