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Malaysia Withdraws Visa on Arrival to Indian nationals

 
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sri_bom
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PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2008 7:12 am    Post subject: Malaysia Withdraws Visa on Arrival to Indian nationals Reply with quote

Malaysia has withdrawn visa-on-arrival facility to Indians and Bangladeshis who will now need a two-week social visit pass and a return ticket if they wish to visit the country.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the proposed new rules were among the measures taken to overcome the problem of illegal immigrants.

''The social visit pass replaces the visas-on-arrival (VOA) which was discontinued in April,'' Syed Hamid told Parliament on Thursday.

The VOA facility has also been withdrawn for tourists from Bangladesh; he was quoted as saying by New Straits Times.

Under the VOA, 2,08,451 tourists were allowed in the country from January till March this year.
The social visit pass must be obtained at the tourists' home country.

Malaysia relies heavily on foreign workers who number about 2.1 million, half of them Indonesians. About 1,40,000 are Indians, 3,30,000 are from Bangladesh and 2,60,000 Nepalese, the paper said.

However, authorities say that many foreigners who entered the country under short-term visa on arrival failed to go back to their home country after the expiry of their permit and instead worked in Kuala Lumpur illegally.

Syed Hamid said although foreign workers had contributed tremendously to the economy, they were also the cause of social ills, illegal squatters and diseases such as tuberculosis, the paper reported.

Source: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080051512

Sri_Bom
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shivendrashukla
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PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2008 10:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think we should reciprocate this gesture ti them. Infact i think we should stop issuing any visas to malasian nationals.

Shivendra
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Nimish
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PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2008 7:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Phew - I'm glad I managed to get in without applying for a visa before hand. I can see Malaysia having a tough time with illegal immigrants due to the VoA system - since there's a hell of lot of Tamilian Malaysians, and they retain very close ties to India. That's likely to create the typical Friends and family effect.
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Nimish
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PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2008 7:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

shivendrashukla wrote:
I think we should reciprocate this gesture ti them. Infact i think we should stop issuing any visas to malasian nationals.

Shivendra


????

India never reciprocated with a visa on arrival for Malaysian nationals!!! Malays have always needed to apply for an Indian visa before they could fly to India. Even for the past year or two - when Indian nationals did not need one to fly to Malaysia. So maybe Malaysia got sick of waiting for reciprocity and decided to pull the plug to bring the system back to parity.
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TKMCE
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 1:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you have travelled on a MH flight between MAA and to KUL ealier you would soon understood what the Malasyian minister was talking about.

It is for the same reason I believe that the VoA for Indians were not available even earlier for passports issued in certain Indian cities (or was it for flights from MAA)??? Now it has been totally scrapped and I am not surprised.

Every country is free to set its own immigration policies and it has been widely reported that the biggest misuse of VoA in Malaysia was by Indian and Chinese nationals.

And after all we anyway did not have reciprocity with Malaysia regarding VoA.

"ShivendraShukla" - Knee jerk reactions like what you propose will do only do more harm than good. I am sure you agree the last thing you want is e long waits for a Visa appointment like we have for USA (not that I am against the US rules - every country I believe has its own rights to restrict entry).

There never were any problems for any genuine vistors both for tourism or business to get Malaysian visas before the VoA scheme was introduced and the same I am sure will be the scenario post VoA suspension
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avbuff
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 2:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

@TKMCE

You are right. I had been to Malaysia last year, and I was shocked to know VOA was available on certain conditions, but basically Passports issued in TN, and pax on flights originating from MAA/TRZ would not get a VOA. In short they wanted to make it difficult for the people of Tamil Nadu.

Last year I could have got a VOA for MY had I flown directly to KL. But then I was to travel by road from SIN for which I needed a visa before hand.

But I would say the Malaysian consulate was nice in issuing a 1 year Multiple entry visa Very Happy
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karatecatman
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 5:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

avbuff wrote:
In short they wanted to make it difficult for the people of Tamil Nadu.


Most of it is also linked to political parties with Tamil Nadu. TN Govt's quarrel with Malaysia is quite well known.

Malaysian retaliation has also been in various forms though there is this pretence of all things being okay. One among them has also been 'denial' of landing rights to Air India Express to Johor Baru.
India has also decided to make things a 'little difficult' for MH.
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shivendrashukla
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 5:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

TKMCE wrote:

"ShivendraShukla" - Knee jerk reactions like what you propose will do only do more harm than good. I am sure you agree the last thing you want is e long waits for a Visa appointment like we have for USA (not that I am against the US rules - every country I believe has its own rights to restrict entry).


I guess you are correct.

Regards
Shivendra
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Nimish
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

karatecatman wrote:
Most of it is also linked to political parties with Tamil Nadu. TN Govt's quarrel with Malaysia is quite well known.

Malaysian retaliation has also been in various forms though there is this pretence of all things being okay.


Is the HINDRAF (the Malaysian group of Indian original Malaysians) part of the problem - and is that in any way supported by the TN govt? When in KL last month, the tensions between the state and the Hindraf were evident, and I heard a lot of HINDRAF leaders were jailed as well.

OT: In a way I'm glad the HINDRAF is up in arms fighting against the lack of equal rights in their own country (though Tamil origin, they are fully integrated into Malaysia and speak the language and so on).

karatecatman wrote:
One among them has also been 'denial' of landing rights to Air India Express to Johor Baru.
India has also decided to make things a 'little difficult' for MH.


Interesting... What have we done to make things a "lil diff" for MH?
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BigTom
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 2:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Seems like the withdrawal of VOA facility was a misquote. See link below from The Star ...

VOA to continue for Indian tourists

Quote:
KUALA LUMPUR: The Government will continue with the Visa on Arrival (VOA) facility for tourists from India, Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said here.

He said the Home Ministry had given the assurance following a news report that the 30-day validity extended to tourists from India would be reduced to two weeks.

The report had said that tourists from India would need to have a social visit pass for two weeks as well as a return air ticket if they wanted to visit Malaysia.

“The Home Ministry had said that the report was inaccurate and the Immigration Department would still continue with their VOA facility for tourists from India,” he said, adding that the Home Ministry would issue a statement soon.

Subramaniam said the Government is also concerned that certain quarters were misusing the VOA but there has been no decision to stop the issuance of VOA.
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Nimish
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 2:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank god for that. I just checked timatic and the VoA facility is indeed still available:

Quote:
Visa required.
However, if coming for touristic purposes, visa can be obtained on arrival, for a max. stay of 30 days (no extension possible), provided arriving at:
- Kota Kinabalu International Airport; or
- Kuala Lumpur International Airport; or
- Penang International Airport; or
- Pulau Pinang International Airport; or
- Senai International Airport.

Fee: MYR 100.- (in local currency only).
Visitor must hold:
- return or onward ticket; and
- sufficient funds (at least USD 500.-).

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BigTom
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some of the figures quoted in The Star report is disturbing - over 30% of VOA tourists overstayed. If this continues I won't be surprised if they do withdraw the facility. It's one of the reasons that we don't get VOAs in Singapore/ the Gulf etc.

Cheers
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karatecatman
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 5:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/pollopinions/Indians_Abroad/VOA_for_Indian_tourists_not_revoked/articleshow/3099631.cms

'VOA for Indian tourists not revoked'

4 Jun 2008, 1548 hrs IST,PTI
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Wednesday dismissed as inaccurate reports that visa-on-arrival (VOA) facility for travellers from India has been revoked, saying that the genuine tourists would continue to benefit from the scheme.

"I received information from the Home Ministry that what was reported in the newspapers about the VOA being discontinued was not accurate and that the policy of issuing VOA for Indian tourists on arrival in Malaysia remains," Human Resources Minister S Subramaniam said in a statement.

His remarks came days after the local New Straits Times newspaper reported that the VOA for tourists from India and Bangladesh had been scrapped due to problems of illegal overstayers.

Subramaniam said genuine Indian tourists would be issued VOA by the Immigration authorities, adding that the government was concerned with "certain quarters" who had misused the VOA.

He acknowledged that the statement on the so-called abolition of the VOA had caused confusion.

Besides, the minister said that Malaysia's Broadcasting Department never had plans to discontinue airing local and foreign Tamil dramas. His comments follow reports in a section of the press that Tamil programmes from India would not be aired by the local RTM channel.
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sri_bom
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 2:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Malaysia to implement visa fee exemption for China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka tourists
News
13-Aug-2014 10:58 AM
Malaysia plans to implement visa fee exemption for China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka tourist (people.com, 12-Aug-2014). Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin stated this move is mainly to resolve the impact of the two Malaysia Airlines incidents, with plans to implement in 3Q2014 or 2015.
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Nimish
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good - hopefully this will help tourism in Malaysia and the struggling flag carrier. It's possible though that a bulk of the benefit may be to Air Asia!

It seems like Visa on arrival is now completely off the cards:

Quote:
/ 13AUG14 / 0837 UTC
National India (IN) /Embarkation India (IN)
Destination Malaysia (MY)
Malaysia (MY)

Passport required.
- Passports and/or passport replacing documents must be valid for at least 6 months from date of arrival.
Passport Exemptions:
- Holders of emergency or temporary passports.

Visa required.

Minors:
- Minors up to and including 15 years of age may be listed in
an accompanying adult's passport.

Additional Information:
- Visitors are required to hold proof of sufficient funds (at least USD 500.-.) to cover their stay.
Warning:
- Nationals of India not holding a confirmed return/onward ticket could be requested to purchase one or refused entry.

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