So how did we hear of the MM2H program? We were visiting the State of Sabah, on the island of Borneo in 2005 when our taxi passed a billboard advertizing condos for sale and the "Silver Haired Program." We read a little about the program while in Malaysia and filed it away in our memory. Upon return from our holiday in Malaysia I spent some time searching the web for the "Silver Haired Program," read about it, talked to Liz about it, and we said....well we can do this. It immediately satisfied some of our retirement plans...we wanted to travel, we had nothing holding us to Raleigh, North Carolina, and we had a lot of friends in Southeast Asia. As we say to some of our friends..."we are like house guests who don't know when to leave." Our exception is: we have our own home here in Malaysia.
In 2008 Liz had an opportunity to do research and teaching in Malaysia. So she spent 6 months in Penang. We viewed this as a test of "can we actually do this." The answer was, absolutely!!.
So we had a plan to approach retirement, we purchased a condo in Indiana (because Liz wanted a place in case the move was a really bad idea), we retired from our jobs in North Carolina, and moved to Indianapolis to settle in. We had hoped to have sold our home in Raleigh by this time, but the economic collapse inspired by the real estate bubble intervened. But that did not deter us, we moved to Malaysia in early April 2011. Once here we located temporary housing and began our quest for the MM2H visa.
In late April we contacted a MM2H authorized agent to work as our representative to the Ministry of Tourism, MM2H office. While this is not necessary, you can do it on your own, we decided that for our sanity it would make sense to have someone pull it all together. We first met with the agent in second week of April. This meeting confirmed that she was someone we could work with. We got our marching orders regarding the documentation needed: tax records (three years), income statements (three months), bank and brokerage statements (three months, letters of good conduct from US based law enforcement agencies, letters from pension funds, copies of passports, passport photos, resumes, and a letter stating why we wanted to live in Malaysia.
At this point we made our best decision, we purchased a printer, scanner, copier. It was less than US$ 125, but made life really easy (and also made the sale of the house go smoother). In total we printed well over 750 pages, and I learned to refill ink cartridges.
First hurdle to deal with....the police report. I had checked out web sites and found the US FBI will prepare the document, but I would need to provide fingerprints. I was advised not to get an FBI letter....they are printed on black and white printers, and the Malaysian government does not view these as original...they need letterhead with raised embossed seals. Solution: we used the CCBI (City County Bureau of Investigation, Wake County, North Carolina). I called them, they told we what forms to download, I scanned them on my trusty printer and sent them to a relative in North Carolina. In a mere 15 minutes she had picked up the letters which were appropriately notarized.
Second hurdle: notarized statements from my pension fund indicating my income and showing three months of deposits into my current account. A call to the pension fund, and some respectful conversation with the appropriate people convinced them that I really needed this documentation, even though it was not part of their standard reports.
Third hurdle: find a "commissioner of oaths." Akin to a notary, he merely witnessed our signatures on the copy of our passports, total cost about USD $3 A good deal cheaper than a similar service by the US Embassy which charges USD $50 per page.
When all the documents were gathered and assembled we met with our agent, issued a check for her services and submitted the documents in late May. We were told the process could take 12 to 14 weeks.
So we waited...in mid August (during Ramadan) I made a status inquiry to our agent. Lo and behold we had been approved, but I did not know since the Ministry of Tourism had failed to notify anyone of the approval. Now started the next part of the adventure....getting documentation of our health insurance status.
I called my health insurance company representative, someone with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina, the plan administrator. They issued new insurance cards (which contain only an issue date) and a letter saying how to get coverage when traveling. Fine, but the Malaysia Ministry of Tourism wanted to know the term of coverage....the beginning and ending date. Well back to the Insurance administrator, who replied: "We cannot do that, it is just not what we do." Now it was plan B, I went through a bureaucratic contact, got to the head of the health plan and worked it downward from there. In several days, I received drafts of the necessary documentation.
Now the wait began. Documents had to be original, no faxes, no pdfs. Documents were mailed to our son, who was making a business trip to Asia. We met him in Singapore in late September, received the documents, and had a good time with him.
On October 3rd, we met with the MM2H agent, had a medical check (to see if we were alive and healthy) and went to Putrajaya. Putrajaya is a new city, the administrative capital of Malaysia, about 50 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Our appointment was for 2:30. We arrived ahead of time. The building is so new, the elevators still had shipping protection on the walls. We went to the 10th floor and entered the MM2h offices. We were confronted with 10 windows, 5 for immigration, 5 for MM2H personnel, and a room full of applicants....and no apparent queuing system. Somehow all in the room were served graciously by the Malaysian staff. Some people were do it yourself (DIY) applicants. The staff patiently answered their questions. Our agent submitted the documents. Abut 45 minutes later, our passports were stamped and we were official MM2H visa holders.
Could we have done this ourself, absolutely. But it would have taken many trips to Putrajaya, frustration on rejected documents, documents whose date had expired, etc. The fee we paid was well worth it.
So who was our agent: Yvonne Lim from Joy-Stay (MM2H) SDN BHD. Many thanks Yvonne.
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