Can We Re-do the MM2H?

Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) is now is serious trouble. The long-term residency programme for foreigners has a 90% drop in applicants following the new conditions imposed by the former Home Minister and current Opposition Leader.

MM2H had around 5,000 applicants a year between 2017 and 2019. New conditions introduced in 2021 (under the PN regime) included:

- Permanent savings of at least RM1 million (previously RM300,000)

- Liquid assets of at least RM1.5 million (previously RM500,000)

- An offshore income of at least RM40,000 a month, up from RM10,000

Although the new rules are being applied to new applicants, the existing holders have lost their trust with the Government (when the change was introduced it was applicable for both existing and new applicants).  Under the earlier scheme, a total 34,347 foreigners were granted the 10-year social visit pass, which is renewable. The then Government’s rationale for the change was to attract high quality participants. Only 267 new applications were received between September 2021 and June 2022. Some 1,461 holders pulled out of the programme. What a disaster!

Malaysia also introduced a cap on the total number of holders on the MM2H or Premium Visa Programme (PVIP) to no more than 1% of total Malaysian citizens. For the PVIP there is a fee of RM200,000 and an additional RM100,000 for each dependent. And this is how we attract talent into Malaysia?

If we want Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), then re-tune the PVIP fees to RM2,000 or lower!  The MM2H is a retirement programme, and a pensioner is expected to have RM40,000 a month as income?

Unless we change drastically, it is better to cancel these programmes and inform any FDIs to go to Indonesia or Vietnam. Or, perhaps each state (in Malaysia) could start its own MM2H. Sarawak and Sabah are able without Federal approval.

Could we ask the current Home Minister to revise both MM2H and the PVIP for the benefit of the nation? And forget about numbers, the total cannot exceed 0.1% of the total citizens of this country. That’s really small!

References:

Reigniting MM2H, Pankaj C. Kumar, The Star, 15 April 2023

MM2H damage done, trust is gone, say foreign residents, Pradeep Nambiar, FMT, 16 April 2023