Permanent Residency in Malaysia

The routes to a long-term, renewable status

Permanent residence exists in Malaysian law as the Entry Permit, but it is discretionary, unpublished in most of its detail, and granted sparingly. There is no points system, no published queue and no timeline that an applicant can rely on. The practical position is that most foreigners in Malaysia, including many who have lived there for decades and many spouses of citizens, hold renewable passes rather than permanent status. The Malaysia My Second Home programme, frequently described as a residency scheme, is not one.

What permanent residence means here

An Entry Permit removes the need for a work pass or a sponsor and gives the holder the right to reside and work indefinitely, along with access to some services on terms closer to those of citizens. It stops short of citizenship: there is no vote, no Malaysian passport, and the status can in principle be revoked.

Applications are generally made after a substantial period of continuous residence and require a Malaysian sponsor or supporting institution. Processing is measured in years rather than months, and refusals are common and typically unexplained.

The recognised categories

• Spouse of a Malaysian citizen, normally after several continuous years on a Long Term Social Visit Pass.
• Investor, requiring a substantial deposit in a Malaysian bank held for a defined period.
• Expert, assessed against a point system administered with input from the relevant ministry or agency for the applicant's field.
• Professional, for those with recognised qualifications who have worked in Malaysia over a number of years with the support of a Malaysian institution.
• Points-based highly skilled category, where age, qualifications, duration of stay and language ability are scored, though the scoring detail is not fully published.

MM2H is not residency

The Malaysia My Second Home programme is a long-stay social visit pass with a multiple-entry visa attached. It permits the holder to live in Malaysia for extended periods and to bring immediate family, but it carries no right to work for a Malaysian employer, creates no entitlement to permanent residence, and counts toward nothing.

The programme has been altered repeatedly. It was suspended, then reopened with sharply increased fixed deposit, offshore income and liquid asset requirements that were widely criticised, and has since been restructured into tiers — commonly described as platinum, gold and silver — with different deposit levels, minimum property purchase values and permitted stay lengths, and with the higher tier attaching some limited work or business latitude that the lower tiers do not have. A minimum stay in Malaysia each year has also been introduced in some versions of the rules.

Sarawak runs a separate and considerably cheaper programme of its own, sometimes referred to as Sarawak-MM2H, with lower deposit and income thresholds. It permits residence in Sarawak rather than in Malaysia generally, which reflects the state's control of its own immigration.

Because the terms have changed so often, figures quoted in older articles are frequently wrong. The official programme page is the only reliable statement of the current requirements.

Official sources

• Immigration Department of Malaysia — permanent residence
• Malaysia My Second Home programme
• Malaysian Investment Development Authority

Checked against these pages in September 2026. Fees and processing times change without notice — confirm before you act.

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