It used to take about 90 days to have the MM2H application reviewed and approved – or rejected.
However starting in 2018, a backlog began building, and by early 2019, there were apparently some 4,000 applications waiting to be processed. This understandably led to a lot of frustration, felt by both applicants and agents alike. Then, to make matters worse, the government decided all applications should also be reviewed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The standard approval time of 90 days was extended to 120 days, but in fact it was taking significantly longer.
In May, the Ministry of Tourism stated they would set up a task force to clear the backlog. After many months of not seeing any applications being approved, they slowly started being released.
However, the slow processing time is still not resolved. At the time of writing this (mid-October 2019), not a single application submitted in 2019 has been approved, and even some submitted at the end of 2018 have still not been approved.
Perhaps what is even more disturbing is that no one can say when this backlog will be cleared.
On the positive side, applications are being reviewed and approved, but given the problems the programme is experiencing currently, we recommend applicants prepare for the worst case scenario that their applications could take up to a year to be processed.