Malaysia: Expatriate Services Division Introduces Enhancement of Projection Requirement For Expatriate Management

• Filing process. To file a projection application, companies need to log in to their ESD account, select the "Projection" option located in the "Setting" tab, and then choose the relevant projection year and click on the "New Projection" option to request a new projection. Companies must complete all mandatory fields, including the justification for the projection, the number of local staff, and foreign workers.
• Resubmission applications. Companies may re-submit projection requests for applications submitted before April 1, 2023, that have not yet received a decision following the implementation of the new process.

Companies under the ESD would benefit from the new process since they can now file for Employment Pass (EP) and Professional Visit Pass (PVP) applications immediately after receiving approval of their projection. Conversely, companies filing under the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation do not have the same instant processing and must wait approximately one to one and a half months to receive the projection approvals before filing work pass applications.

The ESD made the change to streamline the foreign national hiring process in response to feedback from companies about the lengthy processing times for projection applications. The Malaysian government requires companies to submit projection applications to sponsor EP and PVP applications to delineate the need of the company to hire foreign workers.

The Malaysian government will likely continue reviewing the EP and PVP application process and introduce further changes to streamline the process, such as reducing requirements or speeding up processing times.