Transportation is a necessity in Malaysia. Wherever you are, you must have your own transport to get you to places you want to go. Public transport here (Johor) is limited unlike other countries such as the Philippines where you can go anywhere you want with variation of public transport.
Even when applying for a job, one of the requirements for employers is if you have transport – be it in the teaching, hospitality, or in construction and customer online service industry. This pushes me to apply for the conversion of my Philippine driving license to a Malaysian driving license.
Hence, in my case, I acquired my Malaysian driving license using the Bilateral agreement among other nations in ASEAN and to the rest of the world.
Here is the process:
I went to the Philippines Embassy and submitted the required documents for them to issue a certification that my driver’s license is genuine, holding a specific restriction together with a note of when I have started driving in my home country.The requirements for this includes:
Front and back photocopy of my Philippines driver’s license.
Original receipt of the last transaction (registration) I have undergone in the Philippines (optional).
Visa of at least six months. However, in my case, I need to submit a photocopy of translated collection slip of my Immigration transaction for my visa with details of my wife as well as the chop coming from the Commissioner on Oath authenticating that the transaction was genuine.
A payment of RM 106.50 processing fee.e. A paid Malaysian courier envelope of about 4-6 RM so that your requested document will be sent to your state. For me, I waited for almost 2 weeks for the document to be delivered to my wife’s house due to public holidays (Chinese New Year). By the time I acquired my driving certification coming from my embassy, my wife’s family assisted me to process the conversion of my driver’s license to a Malaysian license. It’s good that my father in-law helped me to acquire the form from Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan Malaysia (JPJ), otherwise known as the Road Transport Department (RTD) in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
Now that We are in JPJ, I have prepared other requirements for that conversion:
Filled up form from JPJ for conversion affixing my signatures
Copy of my Philippine passport
Copy of the Philippine Driver’s License
Certification from my embassy
My wife’s IC
Marriage Cert (JPN Putrajaya release)
My six months visa
ID with size 25 mm x 32 mm in white background
JPJ payment: 30 RM for one year
JPJ processing fee: 10.50 RM
The processing time for this transaction depends on the number of people applying in the JPJ office. The applicant must be early to ensure faster transaction. In my case, the processing took about one and a half hours.
It is advisable to convert your existing driver’s license to save time and money. All you have to do is to familiarize yourself in driving the right hand side.
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