The Malaysian VJ Thread

[JP and Tee 13]

Haha i forgot which one i got. Ill go change ltr lol

[USandMalaysia 6]

Hi Everyone & Malaysiangirl! We're new to visa journey. Its nice to see so many couples are going through all the process. As for us, we havent started yet. We are planning to start CR-1 in few weeks hopefully. At the time being, we are still gathering as much information as we could since we change plan our from B-2 to CR-1, considering that B-2 visa gonna be hard to approve and since we already married in Malaysia early this year. Hope everything will goes well.

[MalaysianGirl 26]

Hi Everyone & Malaysiangirl! We're new to visa journey. Its nice to see so many couples are going through all the process. As for us, we havent started yet. We are planning to start CR-1 in few weeks hopefully. At the time being, we are still gathering as much information as we could since we change plan our from B-2 to CR-1, considering that B-2 visa gonna be hard to approve and since we already married in Malaysia early this year. Hope everything will goes well.

Welcome again, guys. Many Malaysian couples on VJ have already finished their journeys. Keep us updated on your journey when it begins next month. All the best, K & C!

[USandMalaysia 6]

We will! :-)

[intx13 5]

Hi folks! My wife passed her IR1/CR1 interview yesterday and we thought we'd post the Malaysia-specific info that we've learned along the way.

General stuff

• The US consulate in KL is really good about replying to emails within a day or two. They're not so great with reading comprehension and tend to answer only the last question posed, so ask one question at a time and use simple English.
  
• When shipping documents to rural areas of peninsular Malaysia, expect an extra 7 days of delivery time on top of Fedex's quoted times. The local couriers with whom Fedex contracts for the last few km are not very efficient. Fedex suggested we mark all packages as containing "business documents".
  
• The US recognizes both Malaysian civil and Muslim marriages as valid. The marriage license needs to be translated into English.
  
• Malaysia is not a high-fraud country. Immigration to the US is relatively low and the consulate is generally friendly.
  

Birth certificates

You can get an newly-issued original birth certificate from most Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara branches. The head office can definitely do it. Call other branches to ask first. The branch will supply you with a form to fill out. Submit it to the counter with a copy of your I.C. and pay 5 RM per original. They will call you up to check over a draft before issuing the new originals.

Police clearance

You can apply for a Certificate of Good Conduct at Putrajaya. Make an account here and print out two copies of the required form. Fill them in and take them to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Putrajaya. Bring 2 passport-size photos, 2 certified/notarized copies of your I.C., and 2 certified/notarized copies of both the biographic page and signature page of your passport. There is a 20 RM fee. When submitting the application, make sure you mention specifically that the application is for US immigration purposes. There is another version of the certificate that is given on your sworn word only, but that is not sufficient for US immigration.

The Certificate of Good Conduct can take up to 2 months to become available. You can check its status with the online account you made. When it is ready you can go back to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to collect it. If you prefer to have it mailed to you, then provide a self-addressed stamped A4-size envelope with your application. 1 RM in postage should be sufficient.

Medical exam

There are two clinics capable of doing the medical exam. Both are in peninsular Malaysia: one in Penang, one in KL. You will get the addresses and phone numbers when your interview date is scheduled, or you can find them here. The rest of this information pertains to the clinic in KL because that's the one my wife used.

The KL clinic has normal week-day hours and limited Saturday hours. Unless you live in KL they will discourage you from making a Saturday appointment because if, for any reason, more tests need to be run or the X-ray must be re-done, it might be a time crunch. If you ask for a Saturday appointment, make sure to get one of the earlier appointments: 8 AM or 9 AM.

The receptionist at the KL clinic is rather rude and curt. I had to call her and be pretty stern before she answered our questions properly. Don't let her push you around! There are several doctors there; the female doctor my wife had was extremely nice and very gentle.

The KL clinic is near St. John school and CBN and (so says my wife) easy to find. The appointment will involve filling in forms, providing a urine sample, answering medical history questions, and asking for medical records. Bring any medical records you have, or request them from your current or most recent doctor. Bring your birth certificate - some people have their childhood immunization records printed on the back.

You must also bring your interview appointment letter, plus means to pay for the exam and X-ray. The clinic will tell you to bring 500 RM, but it will probably cost less than 400 RM. The extra is in case you need to do additional tests.

If you have no medical records and no immunization records on your birth certificate the doctor will judge from your answers to questions what immunizations you need. More than likely you will get two; the third is commonly given to all Malaysian schoolchildren so you've probably had it. The jabs are given on the butt - ouch! My wife says they weren't too bad, more like a fire ant bite.

Blood will be drawn, but the doctor was very gentle - my wife has very difficult veins too, so that's saying something.

You won't need to disrobe completely, but the doctor will do the usual checks. Expect to answer questions about any piercings or tattoos.

Finally you'll get directions to the X-ray place. It's along Jalan Raja Laut, in the ground floor of the DBKL building or the building next door; my wife isn't sure from memory which it was. The nearest LRT stop is the one near Sogo.

When you're all done you'll be told to call the clinic in a few days to check when the results are ready. Then you can stop by any time to pick them up. A friend had hers sent electronically to the consulate but we were never offered that option; I checked with the consulate and they said they have no preference. You only need to bring the exam results to the interview, not the X-ray results; but they might be in the same packet. If so, the consulate will return the X-ray results when you give them the packet before your interview.

When you pick up your results you will be given an unsealed copy for yourself, so you can see what's in the report.

IR1/CR1 Interview

As mentioned at the top of this post, Malaysia is not a high-fraud country and the interview is relatively easy. Of course you should be prepared for anything, but from most accounts you won't be given trick questions or grilled on obscure details of your application. Your interview appointment letter will tell you to come to the consulate at 9 AM. You can definitely go earlier, and because the line forms quickly, it's recommended.

First you go to the counter and give your ID to get a numbered tag. Then you line up and go through security, giving up your car keys and phone. Unlike some consulates, there is only one line, not separate immigrant / non-immigrant lines. Hang onto all your documents! You'll be told to go the room on the right, where you'll wait until your number is called. Then you'll be sent to the room on the left, where you be asked for your passport, medical exam results, another passport-sized picture, and who knows what else. Bring copies of all important identity documents so you can give them whatever they want.

After that you'll be told you can leave, and to come back to the consulate at 1:30 PM. Find something to do in KL for 3 or 4 hours! My wife went to Bangsar Village and read books in a book-shop to keep calm.

Head back into the consulate a little earlier and this time you'll be sent directly to the room on the left. You'll have the same numbered tag and they'll call you by the same number. However, if you aren't called for a while make sure you ask, especially if they seem to skip past your number. I've read that sometimes they get confused and if you don't ask they'll have to give you a new number, making you wait longer.

My wife's interview was incredibly easy. Her interviewer was an Asian-American guy that she says looked suspiciously like Keanu Reeves. First he swore her in, having her raise her right hand and promise to tell the truth. Then he looked at her passport and saw that she had an active B-2 (visitor) visa. Before doing anything else he explained that he had to cancel it, which gave her a positive feeling, because why would he cancel her visitor visa if he wasn't already pretty confident he would approve her CR1? The visitor visa was cancelled with two big stamps from a "Cancelled without prejudice" stamp.

Then came the questions. After all our preparations, the phone logs we printed, the pages of emails and Facebook chats and folders full of other stuff, he only asked three questions!

• What are your husband’s parents’ names? She gave my parents names and explained that she'd visited them several times.
  
• I see your husband compiled lots of pictures including the wedding. Want to tell me about it? She talked about our wedding in detail while he looked at pictures.
  
• What does your husband do? She told him the company I work for, my title, and what I do there.
  

After that he said "Ok Ma’am your visa is approved. Have a seat and wait for the next instruction." And that was that! He kept her passport and soon she was called to the counter and given a red card that lists the address where she can collect her passport and new CR1 visa, as well as the date it will be ready. They also returned her old passport (expired, but associated with her now-cancelled visitor visa).

And with that, 11 months of paperwork and bureaucracy was finished! Feel free to ask us questions while it's still fresh in our heads, or check out our blog, where we've kept track of everything we've done since we started the process (including all the stuff we got wrong the first time!). This link will take you to the category that contains all our visa posts.

[MalaysianGirl 26]

My wife's interview was incredibly easy. Her interviewer was an Asian-American guy that she says looked suspiciously like Keanu Reeves. First he swore her in, having her raise her right hand and promise to tell the truth.

Thanks for the post, intx13! Good update for anyone going through the KL consulate. And the Asian-American guy is still there, huh? He gave me a helluva time when I went to apply for my B2 visa... But I got the visa in the end anyway

Congratulations on your wife getting the visa. I hope you guys have a lovely marriage that will last forever!

[intx13 5]

Thanks! A friend of my wife's had the same guy for her IR1 and he was just as easy for hers too. I guess since the process to get a B-2 is so much simpler they go extra hard on the interview. My wife's B-2 interview a few years back was done by an older woman and, if I recall, she was pretty rigorous.

[Bsze 50]

Thanks for the awesome review, intx13!

[USandMalaysia 6]

Hi All, My Husband and I are preparing the document for the CR-1. So bear with me, because i am gonna have bunch of questions.:-S .My first question is I checked my birth certificate and it is in English. So i just need to make a photocopy of it and ask to certify true copy? Besides that, the marriage certificate is dual language. The only word that are in Malay is

Lesen-lesen / Licenses : TIDAK BERKENAAN

So I need to get it reprint to show it in English right?

And all the documents that we photocopy (eg: Passport, birth certificate)needs to be certify true copy?

Thank you

[MalaysianGirl 26]

Hi All, My Husband and I are preparing the document for the CR-1. So bear with me, because i am gonna have bunch of questions.:-S .My first question is I checked my birth certificate and it is in English. So i just need to make a photocopy of it and ask to certify true copy? Besides that, the marriage certificate is dual language. The only word that are in Malay is

Lesen-lesen / Licenses : TIDAK BERKENAAN

So I need to get it reprint to show it in English right?

And all the documents that we photocopy (eg: Passport, birth certificate)needs to be certify true copy?

Thank you

Hi, yes you will need the documents to be notarized by a Commissioner for Oaths.

The birth certificate is good to go since it is in English.

As for the marriage certificate -- if it is dual language, then I think it should be fine, despite the words "tidak berkenaan".

All the best, guys!

[Pudge 1]

Hi everyone I just found this thread. It is super useful! Nice to see everyone from Malaysia banding up.

Wow intx13. That is one useful post. Thanks for all of the detail!

[JP and Tee 13]

hi Malaysians!

we are starting our I-130 app soon. Just want to know, for Malay applicants, do you put BIN/BINTI as your middle name (if you only have one name like me)? A little confused here. I dont consider that my name, since it's like "daughter of/son of" so hope someone can clarify that for me, thanks!

[DeathStrike 9]

didnt notice this thread before. We will be going through malaysian embassy soon enough (hopefully).

[akihon 129]

hi Malaysians!

we are starting our I-130 app soon. Just want to know, for Malay applicants, do you put BIN/BINTI as your middle name (if you only have one name like me)? A little confused here. I dont consider that my name, since it's like "daughter of/son of" so hope someone can clarify that for me, thanks!

I think most leave the bin/binti out .. most of the Malay people I've met here in the US don't have it.

Edited August 2, 2012 by mebbe

[raverz 1]

hi Malaysians!

we are starting our I-130 app soon. Just want to know, for Malay applicants, do you put BIN/BINTI as your middle name (if you only have one name like me)? A little confused here. I dont consider that my name, since it's like "daughter of/son of" so hope someone can clarify that for me, thanks!

I think it's not required. You just need to put in your name as in First Name, Last Name, middle initial (if any). That's what I've done for all my applications thus far. Either way, my name doesn't have any of that even in my Msian documents.