Malaysian Work Passes Compared

There is no Malaysian work visa. There are eight or nine different instruments, run by four different bodies, and the one you need is decided by who is paying the salary — not by what the job is called.

An employer in Malaysia pays you: Employment Pass. A company overseas pays you and you are here on a project: Professional Visit Pass. A company overseas pays you and you are here because you like the coffee: DE Rantau. Nobody pays you because you are the spouse: Dependant Pass, and you may not work on it.

Passes at a glance

Pass	Sponsor	Duration	Salary or income floor	Dependants	Issuing body
Employment Pass I	ESD-registered employer	Up to 10 years	RM20,000 basic monthly	Yes	Immigration, via MYXpats
Employment Pass II	ESD-registered employer	Up to 10 years	RM10,000 – RM19,999 basic	Yes	Immigration, via MYXpats
Employment Pass III	ESD-registered employer	Up to 5 years	RM5,000 – RM9,999 basic	Yes for passes issued on or after 1 June 2026; passes issued earlier stay under the old policy, which allowed none	Immigration, via MYXpats
Professional Visit Pass-Expert	ESD-registered host company; salary stays overseas	12 months maximum, no extension beyond	Non-salaried position	No	Immigration, via MYXpats
DE Rantau Nomad Pass	Self, with foreign clients or a foreign employer	3–12 months, renewable once for 12	USD24,000 a year tech; USD60,000 non-tech	Spouse and children; parents for the main holder	MDEC
Residence Pass-Talent	Self, after 3 years on an Employment Pass	10 years, endorsed 5 years then 5	RM15,000 basic monthly, RM180,000 a year	Yes, plus LTSVP for parents	TalentCorp with MOHA and Immigration
Dependant Pass	The Employment Pass holder	Follows the principal pass	None	Not applicable	Immigration, via MYXpats
Investor Pass	Self, via MIDA and Xpats Gateway	6 months, extendable by 6	Not published as a salary test	No	Immigration, via Xpats Gateway
PLKS (Visit Pass, Temporary Employment)	Employer with an approved quota	12 months, renewable	Minimum wage applies	No	Immigration, under the foreign worker regime

Salary bands above are those effective 1 June 2026. The previous Employment Pass bands — RM10,000, RM5,000–RM9,999 and RM3,000–RM4,999 — applied to applications received up to 31 May 2026 and still appear in most published comparisons.

The Employment Pass

The default route. The employer must first be registered and activated with the Expatriate Services Division, which means a paid-up capital of RM250,000 for a wholly local company, RM350,000 for a joint venture with at least 30% foreign equity, RM500,000 for a wholly foreign-owned company, and RM1,000,000 for a majority foreign-owned company in wholesale, retail and trade.

Only basic salary counts towards the band. The processing charter is five working days once the file is complete, and the approved pass must be endorsed within thirty days of approval inside Malaysia, or thirty days after arrival. From 1 June 2026 the employment duration is counted against the employing company, so changing employer restarts the clock rather than carrying accrued years forward.

The Professional Visit Pass-Expert

The most misunderstood pass in the set, because people read “visit” and assume it is a business visa. It is not: it lets the holder carry out contracted activity in Malaysia for an ESD-registered host, while remaining on an overseas payroll. The position is non-salaried in Malaysia.

Six eligibility categories: expertise transfer, research, training at an ESD-registered company, volunteers, exhibitors regulated by the Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau, and student internships with foreign embassies, ESD-registered companies or hotels.

The hard limits are what matter. Twelve months maximum, and ESD states plainly that no extensions are allowed beyond twelve months. One contract or project at a time. A change of employer while the pass is still valid requires the holder to cancel the pass and exit Malaysia before applying afresh. An extension inside the twelve months must be filed at least one month before expiry, and the applicant does not have to leave while it is processed.

A support letter is needed for only two sectors — CAAM for aviation and JMG for mining — and it is obtained directly from the agency and uploaded, rather than through Xpats Gateway.

Hotel trainees have their own rules: four-star hotels and above, three-star restricted to Indonesian trainees, a maximum of twenty-five trainees at any time, six months non-renewable, and one training placement per person in any Malaysian hotel ever.

The DE Rantau Nomad Pass

Technically a Professional Visit Pass, administered by MDEC rather than by ESD, and aimed at people whose income arrives from outside Malaysia.

• Duration: three to twelve months, renewable for a further twelve — up to twenty-four months in total.
• Income: more than USD24,000 a year for tech professions; more than USD60,000 a year for non-tech professions.
• Proof of work: an active project contract or employment contract running more than three months. A remote worker’s employer must be a foreign, non-Malaysian company. A freelancer may have both local and foreign clients.
• Family: spouse and children, and parents for the main pass holder only.
• Fee: MYR1,000 for the main applicant, MYR500 per dependant.
• Nationality: open to all nationalities except Israel, and the applicant need not be in Malaysia to apply.

A DE Rantau Sarawak variant has since been added under the same programme.

The Residence Pass-Talent

The only genuinely portable long-term pass, and the reason experienced expatriates stop renewing Employment Passes. It is approved for ten years, endorsed as an initial five years and then a further five on renewal; the renewal must be filed before the first five-year endorsement lapses, and can be submitted six months ahead.

To qualify at the point of application:

• three consecutive years working in Malaysia under an Employment Pass;
• a valid Employment Pass with more than three months left to run;
• basic monthly salary of RM15,000, excluding allowances and bonuses;
• a Malaysian tax file, with tax paid for at least the two most recent years and declared annual basic salary of at least RM180,000;
• a PhD, master’s, bachelor’s degree or diploma from a recognised university, or a professional or competency certificate; and
• at least five years of total work experience.

Meeting the criteria does not guarantee approval — the RP-T Panel decides — and TalentCorp accepts submissions only from applicants, never from agents. There is a separate RP-T Post-10-Years route for holders reaching the end of the ten-year approval, which raises the tax evidence requirement to five years.

Fees are payable to Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad and split across the decision: RM500 application fee before approval, and a RM5,000 processing fee on approval for the main applicant and legal spouse (RM4,500 for children under eighteen on a Dependant Pass, and for common-law spouses, children aged eighteen to twenty-five and parents or parents-in-law on a Long-Term Social Visit Pass). All are stated exclusive of 8% SST. Renewal costs RM300. Immigration fees are RM500 for the main applicant and Dependant Pass holders and RM90 for LTSVP holders, excluding visa. Transfers of endorsement, cancellations and special passes are free.

Dependant Pass and Long-Term Social Visit Pass

The Dependant Pass covers a legal spouse, children under eighteen — biological, stepchildren or legally adopted — and a disabled child of any age. It allows the holder to stay in West Malaysia and does not allow employment; taking a job requires conversion to an Employment Pass. Special permission may be sought from Immigration for social and welfare activities. The processing charter is fourteen working days.

Relations who fall outside those categories go on a Long-Term Social Visit Pass instead: common-law spouses, children aged eighteen to twenty-five, and parents and parents-in-law.

Employment Pass holders may also sponsor domestic help, keyed to salary: one foreign maid at RM5,000 and above, two at RM10,000 and above, three at RM15,000 and above, with anything beyond that referred to Immigration.

The Investor Pass

A multiple-entry facility rather than a work pass, for business visitors and foreign investors: six months, extendable by a further six on justification. The applicant must be outside Malaysia when applying, must use a corporate email domain — public webmail is rejected outright — and cannot bring dependants. It operates in Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan only, not in Sabah or Sarawak. Applications go through Xpats Gateway with MIDA, and are processed within five working days.

On 13 March 2026 the “Existing Investor” category was removed. Investors who already own a Malaysian company or hold a directorship in one are no longer eligible, and are directed to the Employment Pass or the Professional Visit Pass instead. Draft applications in that category were deleted from the system on the same date.

Common mistakes

Treating the Professional Visit Pass as extendable. It is not. Twelve months is a ceiling, not a renewal cycle, and planning an eighteen-month secondment on it fails.

Assuming a spouse can work. The Dependant Pass carries no work right. The spouse needs an employer, an ESD-registered one, and a conversion.

Using DE Rantau while being paid by a Malaysian company. The pass is built on foreign-sourced income; a Malaysian employer means an Employment Pass.

Assuming Employment Pass years carry over to a new employer. From 1 June 2026 the duration is counted against the employing company and restarts on a move.

Applying for an Investor Pass while already a director in Malaysia. That category was abolished on 13 March 2026.

Confusing the Investor Pass with Sabah or Sarawak coverage. Both states run their own immigration control, and the Investor Pass does not reach them.

What’s next

Decide the sponsor first, then the pass. If a Malaysian entity will pay the salary, the whole question collapses into which Employment Pass category the basic salary lands in — and that band changed on 1 June 2026. If the money comes from abroad, the choice is between a twelve-month Professional Visit Pass tied to one project and a DE Rantau pass tied to none.