Employment pass processing time

The Immigration Department will start issuing the Enforcement Card (E-Card) to employers who register their illegal foreign workers from Feb 15.

Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said the registration can be done at Immigration offices in the peninsula and state Immigration office.

"This program is implemented only in peninsular Malaysia, it does not include Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.

"This is the last chance for all employers who had hired foreign workers without work permits to register their employees," Mustafar said during a press conference held at his office here.

He added the program to register the illegals ends on June 30.

"After the deadline, we will proceed with follow up action. If we catch the illegal workers, they will be deported back and action will also be taken against the employers," he said.

Mustafar said employers must be present with their employees when applying for the E-card and warned employers against applying through middlemen or agents.

He added the registration is free and the card will be given to the illegal workers two days after application.

"Employers and the employees must be alert and not apply through anyone else except us.

"There were several cases before where certain people had taken advantage of programs such as this and even charged RM7,000 for a fake document," he said.

The government made this decision to register all employers who hired foreign workers to address labour shortages in several key economic sectors such as manufacturing, construction, farming, agriculture and services.

The E-card is only available to illegal workers from fifteen countries that supply foreign workers to Malaysia.

The fifteen countries are Bangladesh, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Among the safety feature in the E- card included a QR code where applicants details are scanned into the Immigration's myIMS system.

Earlier this year, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had announced the government's initiative to introduce the E-card.

Ahmad Zahid said the card will give these workers a one-year extension in the country and will act as a temporary validation for workers before they get their appropriate legal documents from their respective countries or embassies.