A couple of months ago I tagged along with Leen while she met with a potential supplier for her clinic (which, God willing, she’ll be opening in early October). I didn’t really want to be there, but there I was, watching the supplier pull shiny metal instruments of torture out of his briefcase. He was [...]
Categories: Life
Tagged: Cape Breton, immigration, MacVay, Malay, Malaysia, Nova Scotia, photos, Sydney
There’s another article on the plight of foreign spouses at The Nut Graph today. Just love The Nut Graph. This article highlights the difficulties faced by foreign spouses in Malaysia, like the previous article, but delves a little deeper into the issue. The mysterious Foreign Spouses’ Support Group, which none of the many foreign spouses [...]
Categories: Commentary
Tagged: immigration, Malaysia
I don’t have any personal news to report on the PR front, because I haven’t applied yet. We’re planning to dive into that process after Leen opens her dental clinic, which will be in the next couple of months. So maybe we’ll start the application process around the end of the year.
Meanwhile, here’s a quick [...]
Categories: Commentary, Life
Tagged: immigration, Malaysia
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 [...]
Categories: Life
Tagged: immigration, Malaysia
With all the family history stuff I write here in my blog, one might begin to wonder why I don’t write about my wife’s family history. Well unfortunately genealogy is a very difficult endeavour here in Malaysia. A lack of accessible records (and in many cases a lack of records, period) means you’re forced to [...]
Categories: Heritage
Tagged: family, genealogy, history, immigration, in-laws, Indonesia, Islam, Java, Javanese, language, names, photos, Religion
One of the biggest problems most people will face when researching their family history is that as they go back through the generations they will find fewer and fewer women. The women were there, of course; after all, they make up fully half of anyone’s genealogy. But in days gone by, women were commonly ignored [...]
Categories: Heritage
Tagged: Acadians, Cape Breton, family, France, French, genealogy, history, immigration, language, Martel, names, Nova Scotia, Paris
I guess the timing of all this talk about ancestry and Bumiputera status couldn’t have been better. In the comments to my recent post about ‘official’ ancestry and the new birth certificates, there was some mention of the differences between West Malaysia and East Malaysia, particularly with regards to Bumiputera status. Basically, while someone [...]
Categories: Commentary
Tagged: immigration, migration
I’m on fire today! Two very productive calls to Malaysian government departments — both conducted completely in Malay (yay for fluency!) — and look at this, two blog posts. After my conversation with a surprisingly friendly and helpful officer at the National Registration Department, I called the Immigration Department to see if I could get [...]
Categories: Commentary
Tagged: immigration, Malaysia, migration
Some of you may know by now that Leen and I are expecting our second child (you can call him A2 for now) sometime in March. That means I’ll be doing all that baby stuff again, which includes not only sleepless nights (woohoo, can’t wait) but also a visit to the National Registration Department to [...]
Categories: Commentary
Tagged: immigration, Malaysia, migration, parenthood
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 [...]
Categories: Commentary
Tagged: immigration, Malaysia
The other night a reporter from the Malay Mail called me to get my thoughts on the recent announcement that foreign husbands will get PR. Here’s the article that appeared the next day, entitled ‘Budget 2010: Visa cheer for expats’:
THE 2010 Budget announced by the Prime Minister last Friday has brought smiles to expatriates planning [...]
Categories: Commentary
Tagged: immigration, Malaysia, migration
My Kiwi pal Jake called me this evening to tell me he’d just read a very interesting article over at The Malaysian Insider. The article, with the promising title Budget 2010: Easy PR status for skilled expats, has even more promising information inside:
The government said today it will simplify the granting of permanent residence (PR) [...]
Categories: Commentary
Tagged: immigration, Malaysia, migration
Yesterday, after at least a dozen trips to the Immigration Dept. in Shah Alam this year, I finally got my new Malaysian visa. So what kind of visa can you get when you’re married to a Malaysian and have been here for about seven years? A six-month ‘Social Visit Pass’. Why only six months? Because [...]
Categories: Life
Tagged: immigration, Malaysia, migration
OK, I guess one of the first things I should do here is explain the meanings of the strange-looking foreign words at the top of this page [Update: As you can see, the phrases I'm about to mention are no longer at the top of the page]. Malays or any other Muslims will immediately recognize [...]
Categories: General
Tagged: Canada, Cape Breton, English, family, Gaelic, genealogy, history, immigration, Ireland, language, MacLeod, MacVay, Malaysia, Nova Scotia, Scotland, Sydney, Ulster
Chong Gets it Wrong 5
Yesterday there was an article in the Sun that had me shaking my head. It quoted Michael Chong, head of the MCA’s Public Services and Complaints Department, as saying that “Malaysian men should not marry foreign women if they can help it.” He was referring to cases in which mail-order brides from China, Vietnam and [...]
Categories: Commentary
Tagged: family, immigration, Malaysia