First and foremost, this article has been published in my other blog of the author. The editorial team believes that this is also a relevant topic to be posted in this website:
Being a foreigner married to a Malaysian citizen, you can acquire your Long Term Social Visit Pass (LTSVP) in the different states in Malaysia. LTSVP or also known as Spouse Visa is actually granting at least six months multiple visa entry to the holder.
To start for this procedure. You must re-register your marriage in Malaysia (if you are married overseas). In our case, we re-registered our marriage in Malaysia after our wedding in the Philippines. The re-registration of wedding is held in Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara, Putrajaya.
After the re-registration of wedding, you need to go to the state immigration where your spouse is staying. So we went to Johor Bahru Immigration office at Setia Tropika and submitted our documents for the application of my spouse visa.
The documents we submitted were the following:
Borang IM. 12 document which will be provided by the Immigration office.
Borang IM. 38 which will be provided by the Immigration office stating the details of the applicant’s name and others.
Photo copy of both couple’s passport with immigration chopped upon exiting Philippines.
Photo copy of both couple’s passport with immigration chopped upon entering Malaysia.
Photocopy of foreign spouse’s passport front page.
Photocopy (back and front) of the Malaysian spouse’s IC.
Passport photo with blue background and should be in collared shirt of the couple
Photocopy of your marriage cert from the country you took your marriage (must be authenticated by the Embassy and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Malaysia)Photocopy of your re-registered marriage indicating the license number of your marriage cert from other country.
Photocopy of the foreign spouse birth certificate duly authenticated by his/her embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Putrajaya, Malaysia.
Security bond (this depends on your foreign spouse’s country). In my case, I have to prepare RM 750, RM 36 and additional RM 500 as a processing fee.
You and your Malaysian spouse to appear in the Immigration office for further interview.
Before submitting all documents to the first immigration officer, you must let your documents check by a lawyer (Commissioner On Oath). There is a group of authorized layers outside the Immigration office at Setai Tropika that can help you to certify all your documents. The fee is about 8-15 Malaysian Ringgit depending on the type of documents you are submitting.
You have to make sure also that you have obtained the stamp from the Land Revenue from your place (Johor Bahru), and stamp from a Commissioner of Oath testifying that what you have submitted is all true and also for the security bond.
So going back to the immigration office, you must be calm during your submission. The Immigration officer is a bit intimidating to the sense that he looks like he’s going to eat you (but not all immigration officers are like that). You must be confident and should be able to answer correctly what is being asked. Remember to bring all the original documents because the Immigration officer is very careful in checking your documents.
In terms of communication, they somehow speaks in English but for as long as your spouse can speak and understand Bahasa Melayu, the process would not be an issue.
Once your document is accepted, you as the spouse will be required to have a biometric to be registered to the Immigration office.
Before the Immigration officer closes the transaction, he will make sure that you check every detail of your submitted documents. You must be very careful, especially on your passport number. It should be tallied to the document that has been submitted to the officer who assisted you.
When everything is done, you will be given a form stating a letter of acknowledgment for your visa application, including the name of the officer who assisted you on that day.
Make sure that your passport number is indicated at the last part of the page.
Then, wait for thirty working days for your visa to be released for the first six months. The visa can be renewed for 5 years depending on the expiration date of your passport.