Today Leen and I drove out to Shah Alam and braved the labyrinth that is Kompleks PKNS to submit the documents to the Immigration Dept. for renewal of my pass. I was pleasantly surprised by a few things today:

1) I only needed to submit three forms: the declaration of marriage (stamped by a commissioner of oaths), an extension form, and a visa application form. I thought I’d been given the wrong forms, or not enough forms, but it turned out those three were all I needed.

2) I didn’t need a mountain of supporting documentation. Besides those three forms, I only had to submit one photocopy each of my passport (the main page and the page with my valid pass), Leen’s IC, and our marriage certificates.

3) The immigration officers were friendly and, dare I say, pleasant. Two of the three we spoke with today even smiled. I kid you not.

4) My new pass (one year) was processed in just a few hours. I’d never submitted all the required documents and got my pass all on the same day before this. I was impressed.

But this is a post about PR, right? Okay, so we also talked to one of the officers who handle PR. Here’s what we learned:

1) The Malaysian government is still serious about giving PR to foreign spouses.

2) However, if you’re a foreign spouse, you need to have been here at least five or six years (I can’t remember which).

3) Also, you need to have been here the entire time on a spouse visa. If you recently married a Malaysian and just got here, you need to stay here for several years on the visa that recently replaced the spouse visa, which is pretty much the same thing, before you can apply for PR. If you’ve been here for several years but weren’t on the old spouse visa (for example, if you were on a regular work visa), then those years won’t count and you’ll still have to wait several years before you can apply for PR.

4) Even if you’ve been here the minimum number of years on the old spouse visa (like me), if you were to apply for PR now your application would definitely be rejected. That’s because every time you got your spouse visa in the past there was a little note the Immigration people had in their system that said something like “This poor sod can’t even apply for PR.” They’re currently changing their system so that previous years people spent here under the old spouse programme will count towards new PR applications. But we were told today that process is ongoing and won’t be completed until at least February. So if you’ve been here several years and spent most or all of them on a spouse visa, you can apply for PR but you should wait a couple more months.

I just got a one-year visa, plus I’ve got a kid on the way, so I’m going to wait until maybe April to apply for PR. Then we’ll see how long it takes for a decision, and whether it’s a good one. I know better than to expect the best possible outcome, but if today was any indication then it’s possible this story may have a happy ending after all. We’ll see.

For some perspective, here are my last few posts regarding immigration and the quest for Permanent Resident status in Malaysia:

Like a (Visa) Virgin, Approved for the Very First (or 17th) Time
Light at the End of the Tunnel?
Malaysian PR: Some McVay Guy’s Thoughts (and Mine)
Malaysian PR: Another Hopeful Sign
Malaysian PR: The Catch