Marrying a Malaysian and living options

A Muslim marriage, the majority, is easy.
If you're a UK citizen, get a certificate of no impediment from your local registry office, get that and your birth certificate legalized (You have to send them to Milton Keynes - get the address from google) and you're in business.
I'm unsure if non Muslims have it as easy but a phone call to the Malaysian high commission in London should sort that one out.

I didn't expect such an informative post, thank you very much. I will be doing that!

A little surprised the government is that way. I thought Malaysia was secular.

I've found that you can apply for a spouse visa.

Hope that helps someone.

Hi,

I'm from UK and married to Malaysian, been living here for 7 years now on a Social Visit Pass. It takes a few days to sort out the first time and a bit of paperwork to do but this should give you 6 months on your first visit and up to 5 years after that.
(check out this link http://spousevisamalaysia.blogspot.my/2 … aysia.html) You won't be allowed to work in Malaysia straight away on this visa, you need to  permission after receiving a job offer but again this is possible if you really wanted to get it done.
You can sort all this out after you arrive here, you don't need to arrange things in advance before coming but do bring plenty of birth certificates, marriage certificates, wedding photos etc. if you want to apply for the Social Visit Pass you'll need to show this.

Alternatively you could just travel out of Malaysia after 90 days to Thailand or Singapore and then you can come back in for a further 90 days. (You only get 30 days if you cross on a land border, 90 days if you fly in)

Just be aware that you have to have a return flight booked leaving Malaysia within the 90 day period for when you arrive here or they won't let you board the plane.

As for real estate, the property market here is quite soft at the moment and there are some great rental deals to be found if you hunt around. There are different rules for foreigners in each state when it comes to property ownership but if you are prepared to buy in your Malaysian Spouses name you won't have any problems.

Have fun.

Lab404, I dont think all the questions are answered. 

1) In your post you said "so far it has been a bit confusing; with different rules based on a foreigner's religion,"   To what are you referring? What info have you gotten out there that your religion has anything to do with anything? Unless.....if she is muslim and you are not, then there is the issue of your conversion before marriage---is this the case here? What race and religion is she? The marriage methods wont be the same for each.

2) As Roti says, you can apply for a visa to stay (LTSVP) but on the first go, if I recall its not a multi-entry pass so you have to stay here its term. What the government does not want is a wedding, followed by the groom leaving. If you do that, you will forfeit the LTSVP and have to start all over.  Further, and this is a separate issue, under the LTSVP your wife is your sponsor and as such, she has to provide the qualifying income in the application process, not you. Is she working, with provable income?

3) The confusing part (for you) is the LTSVP vs. 90-day tourist visas. If and when you get the LTSVP, there are no more 90-day visas because its been replaced by the LTSVP. Also, also....if I recall, when you apply for the LTSVP, you cant leave even though its not yet been approved. Immigration will grant you (at cost) extensions to your current tourist visa until the application is approved. This means that, for example, if the paperwork, her income, etc., are not in order, causing delays, they will continue to extend. If you didnt figure on that and need to go out, the application will die. So, youd want to do this when you have nothing but free time in front of you and no need to leave at all.

4) I have to reiterate that last point. Try to see it from the governments perspective. For giving a marriage and a method of staying, they rightfully expect the foreigner to be in love and want to make a life here. If you marry and go, then from their perspective why did they give those things? So, this gives you two choices, although there may be others. You can please the government and come, marry and stay. Great! If not, then on the second go of the LTSVP (this will be longer than the first term of six months) which is now multi-entry, take your wife and go. There are at least two kinds of foreigners, those that want to stay in Malaysia, and those never intended to live here but want the marriage and future with the person and in those cases they marry and shift somewhere else. The problem with visas, especially like the LTSVP, is that one becomes a prisoner to them, its this cloud always hanging overhead. Its a two-edged sword and can be a hateful thing.

5) Another point about the LTSVP. Remember, she is the sponsor, its her application, income, paperwork. You are out of it except that you are doing all the work in the background. When you get to Immigration, she is the one doing the talking and submitting papers. She will qualify for the initial 6-month pass, AND the subsequent passes, too. This means she has to keep up her income and qualifications to be a sponsor, all of the time of the pass--potentially forever. The government steps you up gradually--six months, then two years, then five years--during which they look at your situation and confirm in their own minds you have a real and true relationship and marriage. Frankly, I dont know why they care SO much,  its not like USA where the spouse has the potential to grab welfare payments and other benefits. In Malaysia, you get exactly nothing except the pass. Its ironic, or something, that they want the benefit of passes and relationships to flow to the malaysian and the country, but you the foreigner are not part of the qualifying process. So, if a filthy rich foreigner wants to marry a dirt poor Malaysian, I cant see a way how that could be done. Yes, ironic or what?

Hello, everyone!

Thank you very much for the responses!
I'm all set for getting married in January! I've gotten a lot of work out of the way and the marriage has finally been arranged.

To clarify some points, I will be getting married in Kelantan and we are both Muslim.

What I have:
- Legalised Statutory Declaration
- HIV test
- British Passport not expired (valid for 3 years before I'll renew)

This is a serious marriage and I do love her! I do not plan on ever leaving her. She will be my partner for life O_O.

All I want from Malaysia is:
- To be able to live there for awhile (1-2 years) and enjoy the country
- To run a few UK online businesses from my computer

I'm now trying to find out if running UK businesses online while in Malaysia means I need a Malaysian work visa.

If anyone knows any more, then that would be a life saver.
I will also be giving feedback on my experiences there with the marriage and stay! Hopefully that will be of interest to other users of Expat.com.

Kind regards,
Bilal

Fred wrote:

If you're a UK citizen, get a certificate of no impediment from your local registry office, get that and your birth certificate legalized
.

https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised

They may or may not ask for your birth certificate to be legalised but it's a good idea to be prepared.

My birth certificate is already legalised so no worries on that side . Thank you!

To get a work visa you need either to incorporate a company in Malaysia or Labuan or be employed by a local firm.  You can also set up a regional office of a foreign company and apply for a Director's EP that way.

But you will be applying for the long term social visit pass after 6 months of marriage. That gives legal status to remain.

What needs investigating is whether you need to pay income tax in Malaysia as you will be a resident.

Online businesses are a bit different and used to be taxable in the country where the website was hosted. But worth checking if this changed recently.

http://lampiran1.hasil.gov.my/pdf/pdfam … MMERCE.pdf

Just found this guide as well - https://www.imoney.my/articles/are-you- … -taxes-too

There is a double taxation agreement with UK. It requires a resident's certificate i.e. 182 days in calendar year lived in Malaysia.