The once-popular programme continues to be mired in apparent confusion and indecision.

Many people have been patiently waiting for clarification of the revised terms and conditions for the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) visa. We are among those anxiously awaiting news. However, six months after the new programme details were announced (at least partially), there is still not much to tell.

After suspending the programme for about a year in 2020, while the government reviewed the terms and conditions, the government opened up applications for the visa at the end of 2021. At that time, they increased the required monthly income from RM10,000 a month to RM40,000 and also increased the required fixed deposit to RM1,000,000. Our research had already indicated this would cause a massive drop-off in applications so when local media announced a 90% plunge in new applications just over a year later, it did not surprise us.

When the current Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, came to power at the end of 2022, he indicated his government would ease the qualifying requirements of the visa. However, nothing happened until the end of December 2023, when a new three-tier MM2H programme was announced.

Unfortunately, the announcement left off some key details like the required monthly income and the start date for the new programme. We also heard that the new terms and conditions had not received the required Cabinet sign-off.

A few months later, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that the Cabinet had now approved the new terms, so many people contacted our help desk asking for more details and the start date. Unfortunately, despite being an authorised agent, we were not given any information, so of course we could not provide answers.

Like everyone else, we had no choice but to continue waiting.

FROM BAD TO WORSE

The next thing we heard was that all the agents whose business licences had expired were not getting them renewed and therefore could no longer operate. After several years of suffering from the downturn in business because of the new terms and the programme being suspended, this was too much for some companies, and they were forced to lay off staff or shut down their offices completely. We were fortunate that our own licence ran into 2025.

It was quite distressing to see such a complete reversal of what was a very successful and popular programme – one that we loved, and one which had also yielded considerable benefits to Malaysia. MM2H had even been voted the number one retirement visa choice in Asia. All that seems a distant memory now.

It’s difficult to know for sure, but it seems the government is now focused on reducing the number of agents and increasing regulation over them, rather than confirming the details of the revised programme and setting a start date.

Along with other agents who are still functioning, we can still serve existing participants, but we have been advised not to promote the visa.

EAST MALAYSIA MM2H PROGRAMMES

The Sabah government, which was about to launch its local version of MM2H (on June 1), have apparently been forced to suspend that date because their agents, who are under the supervision of the federal government, are not permitted to promote the visa. The state minister of tourism has expressed notable unhappiness with this and the forced delay in their launch.

Sarawak, which like Sabah sets its own immigration policies, also has its own version of the MM2H visa, and theoretically agents there should also stop promoting their visa, although it’s not clear if they have or not.

For our part, we have regrettably stopped promoting the MM2H visa. Now, many of the applicants who come to us asking for more details decide to go to other countries since we are not able to tell them when new applications will be permitted for the revised visa. We don’t even have an idea of an approximate time frame, and do not wish to mislead anyway, so we can only provide information once we have it and know that it is accurate.

New applications have not been accepted since the beginning of this year. It is sad to see this once-popular visa lose all its lustre and to see Malaysia lose out on the valuable contribution the programme made to the economy. We hope it will not be too long before full details of the revised terms and conditions are revealed and the new applications are once again permitted.