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manufacturing and manufacturing related services sector of Malaysia. Approval for bringing
in expatriates is decided within MIDA by the Jawatakuasa Teknikal Pegawai Dagang (JTPD)
established in 2010.
106. The Jawatankuasa Inspektorat (JKI) and Jawatankuasa Ekspatriat (JKE) within the
Expatriate Services Division of the Immigration Department of Malaysia (EDD-JIM) manage
the processes leading ultimately to issuance of Employment Passes and Professional Visit
Passes.
107. Expatriate employment passes are granted to high skilled foreign workers who have
the specialized skills and work experience required by industry which are absent in Malaysia
or which cannot be supplied in sufficient numbers by Malaysian workers to meet demand.
108. Three categories of Employment Passes are issued to expatriates on the basis of
salaries paid.
Employment Pass I (EPI) – issued to expatriates with salaries of RM10,000 a month and above;
Employment Pass II (EPII) - issued to expatriates with salaries of RM5,000 to RM9,999
a month;
Employment Pass III (EPIII) - issued to expatriates with salaries of RM3000 to RM4,999
a month;
109. In the program managed by TalentCorp, a Residence Pass – Talent (RPT) is issued.
Unlike EPs this pass has a duration of 10 years and need not be tied to any specific employer.
110. MIDA only approves expatriates with monthly salaries in excess of RM5,000. The
duration of the EP for term posts are for up to 5 years and renewable. For key posts the EP
can be held indefinitely.
111. ESD also issues Professional Visit Passes (PVP) for a maximum stay of 12 months to
undertake specific tasks and projects.
112. Through October 2018 some 105,436 expatriates were recorded. In 2017 there were
134,175 expatriates with 49% holding EPI passes, 40% with EPII passes, 9% with EPIII and
1% with RPT. The fastest growing category of expatriates has been EPIII, which grew by a
massive 269% in 2017 and this category was only first established in 2016.
5.5.1 Issues and problems
113. The agencies involved in the expatriates application and approval process and ESD
each have differing standard operating procedures (SOPs) and the corresponding differing
process flows. This has caused some confusion which on the whole may be considered
manageable because until recently application volume has been manageable. There are
however some inefficiencies because some processes continue to be manual while others
have moved online.
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