Survival Guide for Foreign Spouses (tongue in cheek)

Our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's daughter Nooryana Najwa recently married Daniyar Kessibayev of Kazakhstan and we Foreign Spouses would like to wish her and her husband a blessed married life and we take this opportunity to welcome them to the life of Malaysian families with a foreign spouse!

We have prepared a Survival Guide aimed at helping you to cope with the challenges faced by Foreign Spouses married to Malaysians and to prepare you for this Malaysian experience. We suggest you read this together, as everything here affects not just you, the foreign spouse but it also impacts the life of the Malaysian spouse and the children to come.  By the way, the last time a count was done at Immigration a few years ago, we numbered at 100,000 spouses.  Mainly young couples like yourself who come to the country with great expectations, only to get floored by bureaucratic delays, difficulties in securing jobs and disillusionment with the daunting situation ahead.  The reason this Guide was put together is so that you may not be as clueless as we were, and we hope that it will throw some light on what is ahead.

First things first, Hearty Congratulations to you both and now that you are happily married, it makes you eligible to apply for a (very) Long Term Social Visit Pass (LTSVP)-we know the name sounds as if we spouses are visitors only when in actual fact we are in the serious business of raising a Malaysian family in Malaysia.  Be sure that wifey takes leave and accompanies you for every visit to Immigration. Often repeated visits are required for each renewal of visa -  be prepared to stay the entire day! Its a running joke among us spouses that Immigration is our second home!!

Ahh, yes, once you receive your visa you may be worried with the statement on your Visa “any form of employment is strictly prohibited – SPOUSE OF A MALAYSIAN CITIZEN”.  Stay calm, luckily now, spouses are allowed to work with an endorsement on the passport, in the 90s we were not allowed to work, and many of us lost our prime time while we waited for Permanent Residency (PR).

Notwithstanding that you are the man of the house and need a job to support the family, it is essential that you obtain a letter from your spouse giving you permission to work! An offer letter from your employer is also a requisite, in order to get the endorsement!!  Most employers are hesitant to accept spouses for employment when they see that statement on the visa, however we have no doubt that many employers will be more than happy to take you on board.

Now that you have managed the difficult part of securing employment, here's the most annoying: your employer needs only to pay RM5 per month for EPF, while they deduct 11% off your salary towards it!! Not fair, right?? After all EPF is the only savings most Malaysians workers have at retirement.  But that's not all, though you have contributed to EPF, you are not allowed to make withdrawals  to buy a house for your Malaysian family nor  for your Malaysian child's college education!! Now for the worst, you will be asked to produce an air-ticket to your home country to withdraw at age 55, if you still haven't got your Permanent Residence (PR)!! (heck, after 25-30 years here and loosing ties in our birth country, they still don't realize that Malaysia is our home?) Shush... most of us who came in the early 90s thought that PR would only come only post posthumously, though these days the process is a bit quicker, you merely wait for years not decades as we did!!

Now if you require to buy a house, you will have to buy one that is above RM1 million [sic RM2 million in Selangor], and if it is jointly purchased with your spouse, make sure the home is above RM2 million. Yes, yes we know you are purchasing the home for your Malaysian family!! Wondering if the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, is listening?  Bet, you did not expect that you would be treated as a mere foreign investor right? This is life for us foreign spouses and we are only half way through, bro!!

OK, just so that the smaller things don't get forgotten, you will have to pay tourist rates at theme and leisure parks and other tourist attractions, while your Malaysian family pays local rates. Oh yes there is a deposit that's to be paid if you want a phone line. You also get less interest at the banks for fixed deposits. For a credit card, some providers ask for a monthly salary of RM12K and others will ask for a deposit of RM10K, not many of us are at that income bracket; perhaps you will have better luck than us!! 

This is a gentle reminder to you to carry your passport where ever you go. Often we foreigners are the target of spot checks by our efficient men in blue! No excuse accepted, even if you are in swimming attire. Once, we were asked for documents by the coast guard while island hopping,  we had to return to the hotel to show my passport, that was the end of our sightseeing, much to the disappointment of my Malaysian kids, and no refunds given for the fare paid!!

Now make sure that you also carry your marriage certificate with you should you seek treatment at the government hospital, otherwise you will be charged the same rate as those poor migrant workers and believe it or not, it does cost as much as those pricey private medical centers!

Just a little more to bear, as we enter the home run of Permanent Residency (PR).  You are eligible to apply for PR, after being five years on the LTVSP, although approval for PR may take even longer!! Some of us got a run around just to obtain the PR application forms, which were mysteriously out of print!! You may not face this problem. Then you both compile loads of documents for submission based on the checklist and forms which are available at Immigration.   These days you have the facility of their website which lists the documents required.  You then submit the PR documents at the State Immigration Dept. We were sent to different state departments before our documents got accepted.  After submission, both of you have to wait for the Interview Call, then another longer wait for the Police check. Oh, but you can track the progress at the Immigration website - for years our status stated “sedang di proses”!!

Arguably, it is more difficult and takes longer for male spouses to get PR, and officers at immigration admit it too!! Years pass by, when children have become adults and it is quite embarrassing if one is still on the LTVSP, while many others boast of holding not just of Red MyPR but the cool Blue IC. Yes, Yes, we are often reminded and we are well aware that PR is not a right but a privilege. Haven't they realised that money earned by spouses is spent here in Malaysia on our Malaysian families, rather than the constant rant we hear of cash outflows??

Finally the day arrives when your spouse receives the mail to collect the Letter for long awaited Permit Masuk. Then another wait for JPN to process the My PR card. All in all about 7 to 10 years and you are lucky to have the PR within that time. OK that's it, unbelievable isn't it?? For us it took much longer, and it was surreal when I held dearly onto My PR, (pun intended). We celebrated the long grind to this momentous day, my eldest in college, my close to retirement hubby and I. It sure was a long wait, from the day I came in as a young bride in the 90s, the century turned and I with greying hair holding on to my Malaysian PR!  Well surely, the authorities will be kinder on you!!

Oh yes, lets quickly cover citizenship while we are here, though most of us get mired in the PR process, we just forget that citizenship is available to us. Now while women spouses are eligible for citizenship, two years after PR; Male spouses have to wait 10 years after PR, for citizenship by Naturalisation.

We've run through the gamut and left out the nitty-gritties so that you don't get put off.  Don't be like many other professional spouses, who left the country unwilling to face the tedious processes, there's been enough brain drain. Definitely, we'd like you stay on and hope that you will both put in a good word to relevant authorities. It will help thousands of other Malaysian families with foreign spouses to lighten their burdens. Spare a thought for widowed and divorced spouses whose PR gets withdrawn, and have to stay under tenuous circumstances to provide for their Malaysian children. If you have it easy, know that its not the same for the others, so do remember the plight of us ordinary foreign spouses and help to bring about positive change.

Welcome to the club and we wish you both the very best!!! – March 22, 2015.

*BJP is a representative of the Foreign Spouses of Malaysians.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
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