KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 34 out of 249 applications have been approved for the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme as of Oct 14.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said the 34 applications approved include 11 principal applicants and 23 dependents.
He said Motac had received 249 new applications as of Oct 14, including from dependents, based on the new conditions of the MM2H programme.
Motac serves as a one-stop centre that receives and processes these applications, which are then forwarded to the relevant agencies for security screening.
After that, the application documents will be sent to the immigration department for consideration and approval.
Responding to a question from Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin (PN-Masjid Tanah) on the status of the MM2H application process nationwide, Tiong said Motac will not compromise on national security aspects even as efforts to improve the MM2H programme was in progress.
He said in addition to requiring the submission of a good conduct certificate, each applicant is required to undergo a security screening by the police.
He added that Motac would make efforts to expedite the 30-days it takes to process each application.
In June, Tiong released the latest guidelines for the MM2H programme with three categories: silver, gold and platinum, along with a special category for special economic zones (SEZ) and special financial zones (SFZ).
The general conditions for all three categories include the programme being open to foreigners from countries with diplomatic relations with Malaysia, applicants minimum age to be 25 years old, and requirement for an applicant to stay in Malaysia for at least 90 cumulative days a year.
Detailed criteria and application requirements for the Platinum, Gold and Silver categories are as follows: the Platinum category requires a fixed deposit of US$1 million, the Gold category requires US$500,000, and the Silver category requires US$150,000.
Applicants are now required to buy a property in Malaysia worth between RM600,000 and RM2 million, depending on which visa category they apply for.
