We previously announced that the government would now give foreign spouses of Malaysian citizens a five year “spouse visa” however this does not appear to be the case for retired people

In fact we have received many e-mails from foreigners married to Malaysians who were only given six-month visas.

When we contacted the immigration department they advised that each visa application is reviewed on a “case by case” basis. They would not elaborate on the criteria they used to decide the length of the visa.

However based on the information we have received it is safe to assume that if you are retired and married to a Malaysian you will probably only get a six month visa.

We have advised the Ministry of Tourism about this but apparently this area is totally under the control of the immigration department so I am not sure if anything will change.

We continue to believe people married to Malaysians should be allowed to apply under t0he MM2H programme. In our view the abuses which caused them to be excluded form the programme can be fairly easily addressed without excluding them from the ten year visa entitlement which comes with MM2H.

Watch this space for news of any changes but don’t expect anything soon.