How long to get a visa Extension?

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Hi Ken

Thanks for the update, we will be going there next week.

regards, Paul

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Just to feedback, I also went to PWTC yesterday, and got my MM2H visa with no problem. Yvonne Lim was there also, and she seemed to guide them through what was needed to be done.
Anyway, the machine worked fine, and I am the proud owner of an MM2H sticker in my passport.......at last. Regards. Ken

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Congrats Ken. I am amazed, and I think it just underscores what we know already. It depends on who you get on the day! Thank goodness I don't live that far away, so I can pop back as many times as it takes.....but that is not the point!!

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Hello fizz

To be honest I do think it helped that Yvonne was there. She did seem to galvanise them into action.

It would have been a disaster for us if we couldnt have finalised it yesterday, not only because we had to come from Penang, but there are other things depending on it, and time is getting a little tight.

Hope you get it sorted soon anyway.

Regards

Ken

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I went there today, and they could not transfer my current visa to my new passport.

Oddly/ironically or perhaps not surprisingly the guy who dealt with me did not have a very good command of English, and simply said the system was not working/was being 'upgraded' - I guess a face saving way of saying it was broken!!! He suggested I come back tomorrow (can you imagine!!) or Monday.

Needless to say I will be doing neither!

I could write another few pages on the procedure he put me through, whilst he didn't really understand what my requirement was, despite me clearly describing my needs, and presenting him with my old passport opened at the current visa page, along with my new passport!!

I have just checked.....there is no smiley with steam coming out of its ears!

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hi, remingtonbrass,

err . . . is there a message here?   

Under the MM2H Introduction Category there's a Members Testing Board for those wishing to try things out.

Thanks.   

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Sorry I must have hit the wrong button.
 I think it is a bit harsh complaining about a Malaysian citizen having a poor grasp of English when you front a Malaysian office.
I have had experience with Malaysia for over twenty years now, Sarawak and Sabah, and am married to a ethnic Chinese Malaysian citizen.
I have always found it more than helpful to have my wife with me, or a member of her extended family.
 Also in Sarawak there are touts who make a living filling out forms that are in Bahasa Malaysia for a ringit or two, and some  even have connections with the office you need help from.
Overall though  I have noticed if you have the wrong attitude the Government staff soon loose any comprehension of the English language they may have had before a smart arse breasts the counter.     

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I've just written a feedback to MMh2 requesting them to revert back to using the few regional immig offices eg Pg and Johore for Renewal and Extensions for the sake of MM2H retirees. Hope they will read my feedback that I sent in the official website

Oh well done BB.  I think I shall do the same.  I wonder if we all send feedback they might listen?  Got to be worth a try hasn't it?

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hi,

If you're using email via the info@mm2h.gov.my then don't hold your breath. My last emails were mid August and still no reply.

Perhaps there's only 1 MM2H machine, the one that's temperamental at PWTC MM2H Central.

And, as noted earlier, the MM2H ID Card machine has been out of steam since sometime early 2009. Every month the mm2h.gov.my site keeps updating its announcement about this so it will appear to be only a recent oops. But then, the ID & Visa side of things is Immigration and not Tourism.

So you've got Tourism not answering emails, and Immigration not issuing stuff. Sounds like me when I was at work.   

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Yes, all we can do is write to them, post here, keep our fingers crossed and hope they read
Looks like they are 'understaffed' or will only read and reply after all the fasting and festivities
(when blood sugar is low, we do get sluggish, confused, aggitated and slow mental response... even with languages  we're familiar with. hehe sounds like the last year of my working life  )

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I think it is a bit harsh complaining about a Malaysian citizen having a poor grasp of English when you front a Malaysian office.
I have always found it more than helpful to have my wife with me, or a member of her extended family.
 Also in Sarawak there are touts who make a living filling out forms that are in Bahasa Malaysia for a ringit or two, and some  even have connections with the office you need help from.
Overall though  I have noticed if you have the wrong attitude the Government staff soon loose any comprehension of the English language they may have had before a smart arse breasts the counter.

Just to clarify I said very little to the guy behind the counter, but when he spoke to me in English I was unable to comprehend most of what he said.

I think it is fair to say that the MM2H centre at PWTC is not just any Malaysian Office.

There are hundreds of thousands of Malaysians who speak English extremely well, and as the MM2H centre deals with apllicants from practically every county in the world (apart from Israel & Serbia I believe!), I would have though that English would be the common language, except perhaps for applicants from Indonesia, and thefore 'fron desk staff would have a reasonable to good command of English.

It may be that most applicants now use an agent, and therefore business can be conducted in Bahasa Malaysia. However for those of us who have done it alone from the beginning it makes it tricky for us.

Maybe this is a subtle way of persuading us to use an agent!

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For the life of me I cannot understand why this one needs to be so complex.

1) You get a new passport.

2) You present both new and old passport at PWTC.

3) A clerk confirms that the MM2H visa in your old passport has a validity date some months/years in the future.

4) The clerk brings up your file/details on the computer, and confirms that your MM2H visa is real and not a forgery!!

5) They print out a fresh copy of your MM2H visa with the same dates etc on it, and stick it into your new passport.

6) A smile and a "Terima Kasih" & you are on your way.

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For the life of me I cannot understand why this one needs to be so complex.

1) You get a new passport.

2) You present both new and old passport at PWTC.

3) A clerk confirms that the MM2H visa in your old passport has a validity date some months/years in the future.

4) The clerk brings up your file/details on the computer, and confirms that your MM2H visa is real and not a forgery!!

5) They print out a fresh copy of your MM2H visa with the same dates etc on it, and stick it into your new passport.

6) A smile and a "Terima Kasih" & you are on your way.

I like that if they really work out this way. But not always, right?

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hi,

Wikipedia :

Bureaucracy is a concept in sociology and political science referring to the way that the administrative execution and enforcement of legal rules are socially organized. Four structural concepts are central to any definition of bureaucracy:
1). a well-defined division of administrative labour among persons and offices,
2). a personnel system with consistent patterns of recruitment and stable linear careers,
3). a hierarchy among offices, such that the authority and status are differentially distributed among actors, and
4). formal and informal networks that connect organizational actors to one another through flows of information and patterns of cooperation.

. . . and all I wanted was a visa. 

The critical word is "actors" so one party has to act as if it's the most important transaction ever, and the other party act as if they really care a lot. If both wheels get nicely greased they spin forever. I know about some of this as I had to attend a course  when I worked in Singapore : the transactional analysis package got sold to government departments and we suddenly all had to trust each other. Jeez, it was scary. Being Singapore, giggling wasn't allowed     

So your visa extension will normally be done in 2 or 3 hours.

Some pointers from this thread :

1). Phone ahead, and check that the machine is operational.
2). Avoid days just before Public Holidays.
3). If there's a real problem phone Yvonne.   




PS : When we did the TA package we refused the trusting part of falling over backwards and being caught by colleagues. Fat chance. We were told that it was part of our contract, that's the warping bit of TA (Eric Berne please note), so we asked for an insurance and compensation package, and a mattress. And then the whole thing was dropped, as we probably would have been.

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I checked with Yvonne again because we wanted to drive down tomorrow and got this response:

As mentioned in my text, they are having problem with their system and printer again. I believe it is because they have been fixing the system last week and after the 3-day idle, the system is encountering similar problems. They did say that the system was running ok in the morning.

We are not going 
Fizzy for what it's worth she mentioned in her text that the machine was working well most of the time "early morning" what causes the breakdown during the day, I don't know.
Since you are close you might want to try early

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I just called MM2h at PWTC to check that the machine was working, and was informed 'Yes it it'

I also explained what I needed and the lady said: "Just your old and new passport & a simple letter requesting the transfer of Visa from old to new"

Incidentally she spoke perfect English & she tole me something very different to the guy I met a couple of weeks ago who wanted FIVE things in addition to my old & new passports.

More later after my visit!!