Visas for Business Owners — Employment Pass, MM2H, PVIP and Dependant Pass Compared

The question behind every one of these programmes is the same: may I actually work, or run my company, on this pass?

Marketing material for residence programmes is careful never to answer it directly, and the market has settled on a shorthand — MM2H does not permit work — that is half right and therefore misleading in both directions.

Here is the permission table, read off the issuing authorities.

What each pass permits

Pass	Issued by	Employment by a Malaysian company	Business or investment activity
Employment Pass	Immigration (ESD)	Yes — this is its purpose	Sponsored by the employer
MM2H Silver	MOTAC	Not allowed	Not allowed
MM2H Gold	MOTAC	Not allowed	Not allowed
MM2H Platinum	MOTAC	Permissible	Permissible
MM2H SEZ / SFZ	MOTAC	Not allowed	Not allowed
PVIP	Immigration	Yes — permitted to work and carry out legal business activities	Yes
Dependant Pass	Immigration (ESD)	No — must convert to an Employment Pass	No
LTSVP, spouse of a Malaysian citizen	Immigration	Yes, by endorsement	Yes
Professional Visit Pass	Immigration (ESD)	No — non-salaried, employed by the overseas company	No
DE Rantau	MDEC (a form of PVP)	Not the purpose of the pass	Remote work for foreign clients

For Silver, Gold and SEZ, MOTAC’s own wording adds a pointed rider: the relevant pass must be requested. That is the programme telling you to get an Employment Pass.

The MM2H tiers in full

MM2H is administered by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, and since the 2024 restructuring it runs on four tiers.

	Silver	Gold	Platinum	SEZ / SFZ
Fixed deposit	USD 150,000	USD 500,000	USD 1,000,000	USD 65,000 (age 21–49) or USD 32,000 (50+)
Property purchase	RM600,000 and above	RM1 million and above	RM2 million and above	Forest City, Johor
Participation fee (one-off, principal)	RM1,000	RM3,000	RM200,000	RM1,000
Pass duration	5 years MEV	15 years MEV	20 years MEV	10 years MEV
Minimum stay	90 cumulative days per year	90 days	90 days	90 days
Work and business	Not allowed	Not allowed	Permissible	Not allowed

Common conditions across the tiers:

• The fixed deposit must be with a Malaysian institution licensed under the Financial Services Act 2013 or the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013.
• A maximum 50 percent withdrawal of the principal deposit is allowed after approval, for purchasing a residence, education, medical treatment and tourism.
• Purchase of a residence is compulsory after approval, and selling is not allowed for 10 years — though the property may be upgraded to a higher-value one.
• Failure to comply with any term results in the pass being revoked.
• The 90-day requirement may be satisfied by the principal and/or dependants for participants aged 25 to 49.
• Pass validity tracks the passport, so a passport expiring early forces a renewal.

Dependants may include spouse, children under 21, children aged 21 to 34 if unemployed and single while in Malaysia, medically certified disabled children with no age limit, and parents or parents-in-law.

The correction worth making twice. Most published guidance states flatly that MM2H holders may not work or hold a directorship. That is accurate for Silver, Gold and the SEZ tier. It is not accurate for Platinum, where MOTAC states in terms that business and investment activities are permissible and that career opportunities are permissible. The price of that permission is a USD 1 million deposit, a RM2 million property and a RM200,000 fee — so it is a real option for very few people, but it exists and the blanket claim is wrong.

PVIP — the overlooked one

The Premium Visitor Pass sits with Immigration rather than MOTAC and is the most permissive programme on this page.

• Income: onshore and offshore income of RM40,000 per month, or RM480,000 annually — or, alternatively, a net worth of at least RM1 billion.
• Fixed deposit: RM1,000,000 with a licensed Malaysian bank, no withdrawal of the principal.
• Participation fee: RM200,000 for the principal, RM100,000 per dependant, with a 10-year option for dependants at RM50,000.
• Duration: up to 20 years with a multiple entry visa. No age limit.
• Stay: exempt from a minimum staying requirement.
• Permissions: allowed to work and carry out legal business activities, study, purchase residential, commercial and industrial property, and invest actively.

Two cautions. Most guides drop the word onshore from the income test, quoting it as an offshore-income requirement. And PVIP does not appear in Immigration’s main pass index — it is published only on the eServices document server, and several PVIP-branded websites are not government domains.

Dependant Pass and LTSVP — the endorsement confusion

These two are constantly conflated, and the practical difference is the whole point.

A Dependant Pass covers the spouse and children of an Employment Pass holder. ESD’s position is explicit: a DP holder who wishes to work must apply for an Employment Pass through the employing company via ESD Online, and a person may hold only one pass at a time, so the DP must be surrendered or shortened. There is no work endorsement on a Dependant Pass.

A Long Term Social Visit Pass covers the parents and parents-in-law of an Employment Pass holder, and a common law spouse may be considered. In that form, employment is not allowed and requires conversion to an Employment Pass; study requires conversion to a Student Pass.

But the LTSVP issued to the foreign spouse of a Malaysian citizen is a different animal. Immigration states that the holder is permitted to work, engage in business or undertake professional employment without the need to convert to an Employment Pass, with the permission endorsed in the pass by the Director General of Immigration. That endorsement route is the one people are thinking of when they wrongly attribute it to a Dependant Pass.

Professional Visit Pass and DE Rantau

A Professional Visit Pass runs to a maximum of 12 months with no extension beyond 12 months. The position is non-salaried, the expatriate remains employed by the overseas company, and it is limited to one contract or project at a time. The host must be ESD-registered, and the sticker must be endorsed within 14 days of entry.

DE Rantau, MDEC’s digital nomad pass, is legally a type of Professional Visit Pass. Income requirement is USD 24,000 a year for tech talent and USD 60,000 for non-tech roles, which now include founders, chief executives, chief operating and chief financial officers, legal counsel and tax specialists. Duration is 3 to 12 months, renewable by a further 12 months, to a maximum of 24 months. Fees are RM1,000 for the principal and RM500 per dependant.

Common mistakes

• Believing MM2H never permits work. Platinum expressly does.
• Believing MM2H generally permits work because Platinum does. Silver, Gold and SEZ expressly do not, and MOTAC tells you to request the relevant pass instead.
• Assuming over-50s escape the MM2H stay requirement. All four tiers require 90 cumulative days a year.
• Expecting a work endorsement on a Dependant Pass. DP holders convert to an Employment Pass and give up the DP.
• Reading the PVIP income test as offshore only. The official wording is onshore and offshore income of RM40,000 per month.
• Using a Professional Visit Pass to run your own Malaysian company. It is non-salaried, single-project and tied to a foreign employer.
• Forgetting the MM2H 10-year property lock-in. The residence cannot be sold for ten years, only upgraded.

What’s next

Decide first whether you need to be paid by a Malaysian entity. If you do, the Employment Pass is the instrument and every other route is a detour — see the founder guidance for the ESD sequencing and the salary bands revised with effect from 1 June 2026.

If you do not, and you are relocating on capital rather than salary, compare PVIP against MM2H Platinum directly: both permit business activity, PVIP has no minimum stay and no property lock-in, and MM2H Platinum requires a RM2 million residence you cannot sell for a decade.

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Verification status. AI-assisted draft, not yet reviewed by a subject-matter expert. MM2H figures and permissions were read directly from the MOTAC category pages for Silver, Gold, Platinum and SEZ. Programme terms change without much notice — confirm with the issuing authority before committing a deposit or a fee.