The International Schools Review Forum

Hi

Anyone out there who has worked in Malaysia - did you obtain your employment pass from the school before arrival in the country? Or did you arrive as a tourist and then the school processed the visa for you?

Much appreciated. Thanks!

In Australia, I showed malaysian airlines a copy of my contract as I had a one way ticket. At the Malaysian end, I walked straight through as a temporary 90 day tourist. Then when I arrived, the school did all the paper work. It is a multistep process culminating in you finally going to immigration, getting your card and having biometric information(thumb prints) encoded. It took about 30 minutes.

Thanks for that. Can I just ask how long the procedure took after you started work? A question of days?weeks?months?

Much appreciated.

It did take weeks. I do not know if that was the school's fault or if that is how long it takes. I think it took about 8 weeks. I remember that the school would say we need to copy your passport and then I would not hear much till the next stage. On another note, you will need a mobile phone and/or card almost immediately you get there. malaysia does not really use landlines like they do mobiles. Digi was the operator i used and I got a prepaid card. You will need your passport to purchase the sim card. i found it useul to have some spare colour passport phots and copies of my passport. If you are being picked up,ask about getting a sim card almost straight away. you may or may not need a Malaysian phone,some brands caused problems. Finding your way round is also initially difficult so most people end up with a gps or a addon to their phone which does the same thing. Enjoy the food