Before you start

Passport valid at least six months beyond your intended stay
For an Employment Pass: a job offer from a Malaysian-registered employer that will sponsor and file for you
For DE Rantau: proof that all your income comes from outside Malaysia, plus health insurance valid here
For MM2H: liquid funds for the tier's fixed deposit and a property purchase at or above the tier's minimum

Step-by-step

1
Arrive on a Social Visit Pass and use it to scout
Most EU, UK, US, Australian and Canadian passports receive a 90-day Social Visit Pass stamped on arrival at Penang International Airport, free and with no advance application. You may not work or earn from any Malaysian source on it. Extensions exist on paper but are discretionary and are routinely refused to nationals who already received the full 90 days — treat the stamp as a scouting window, not a plan.
In personWho: Most visitorsImmediate on arrivalFree
2
Employment Pass — your employer files, you do not
Penang's multinationals and their supply chain file Employment Passes constantly, so HR here is usually fluent in the process. Your employer registers with and submits through the Expatriate Services Division; the pass is graded by monthly salary into three categories, with senior technical and management hires normally landing in the top one. You cannot lodge this yourself, and the pass is tied to that employer and job — a change of role or company means new paperwork, so never let it lapse in the gap between jobs.
Via employerWho: Your employer, via the Expatriate Services DivisionCommonly a few weeks once the employer's file is completeEmployer-paid in almost all Penang offers — confirm in writing
3
DE Rantau — the nomad pass, applied for online
MDec's DE Rantau Nomad Pass covers freelancers and remote employees whose income comes entirely from outside Malaysia. You apply through MDec's portal with proof of income, an employment letter or client contracts, health insurance and your CV. The income floor differs between digital and technology roles and other professions, and the non-technology floor is substantially higher — check which track applies to you on the portal before assuming the lower figure. It is a 12-month pass, renewable once. Fees and processing times have moved more than once; confirm both on the portal rather than from a blog.
OnlineWho: Remote workers and freelancers paid from abroadSeveral weeks; applicants commonly report six to eightSet by MDec and revised periodically — check the current fee on the portal
4
MM2H — read only the post-2024 rules
MOTAC restructured MM2H in 2024 into Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers. The old monthly-income test is gone entirely; the bar is now a fixed deposit in a Malaysian bank plus a minimum property purchase. Silver is a USD 150,000 deposit plus RM 600,000 of property for a five-year pass; Gold is USD 500,000 plus RM 1,000,000 for fifteen years; Platinum is USD 1,000,000 plus RM 2,000,000 for twenty years and is the only tier that permits working or running a business. In Penang the property leg collides with the state's own foreign-buyer floors — see the tax and housing notes.
In personWho: Retirees and long-stay applicants with liquid capitalSeveral monthsTier deposit plus a qualifying property purchase, plus agent fees if you use one
5
Register your address and keep your documents current
Once you hold a pass, keep your passport, pass endorsement and tenancy agreement together — banks, JPJ and hospitals all ask for the set. Renewals are handled through the same channel that issued the pass: your employer for an EP, MDec for DE Rantau, the MM2H one-stop process for MM2H. Start any renewal well before expiry; a lapsed pass is far harder to fix than an early one.
In personWho: You (employer assists for Employment Pass holders)Start two to three months before expiryVaries by pass

Documents you’ll need

Passport with at least six months' validity, plus colour copies
Passport-size photographs
Employment contract and qualification certificates (Employment Pass)
Proof of foreign-sourced income: bank statements, contracts or employment letter (DE Rantau)
Health insurance certificate valid in Malaysia (DE Rantau; sensible for everyone)
Police clearance from your home country (MM2H and some EP categories)

Things most newcomers don’t know

Penang's Employment Pass volume works in your favour — the employers here file these constantly, and that shows up as speed.

The Bayan Lepas cluster has been hiring foreign engineers for fifty years, so HR departments at the multinationals and their larger suppliers have standing relationships with the Expatriate Services Division and know exactly what a clean file looks like. The practical consequence is that delays in Penang are far more often caused by a missing qualification certificate on your side than by the department. Get your degree certificates, transcripts and reference letters certified before you accept the offer, not after.

Source: Expatriate Services Division process; Penang employer practice

Every MM2H figure older than the 2024 restructure is wrong, and most of what ranks online is older than that.

The programme was suspended, relaunched in 2021 on a monthly-income and liquid-asset test, then rebuilt in 2024 around a fixed deposit plus a property purchase across three tiers. The 2021 numbers — RM 40,000 a month offshore income, RM 1.5 million in liquid assets — are simply obsolete, and there is no 'MM2H Premium' tier despite what several agent sites suggest. Read the official MM2H programme pages before you move any money, and be sceptical of any agent quoting a monthly-income requirement.

Source: MOTAC MM2H programme guidelines, 2024 restructure

If you are eyeing MM2H with a Penang property, the state's own minimum purchase prices bite before the programme's do.

Malaysia lets each state set its own floor for foreign buyers, and Penang's are among the highest in the country and differ between the island and the mainland, with landed property set far above stratified. On top of that, Penang applies a levy on foreign purchases on the island. So an MM2H Silver applicant budgeting to the programme's RM 600,000 property minimum can find that no qualifying island property exists at that price. Confirm the current state thresholds and levy with a Penang conveyancing lawyer before committing.

Source: Penang state foreign-buyer thresholds and island levy (state land administration)

A Social Visit Pass is not a soft nomad visa, even though enforcement is light.

You cannot legally earn anything while in Malaysia on a Social Visit Pass, and that includes invoicing clients abroad from a café in George Town. Enforcement has historically been relaxed, which is precisely why people convince themselves it is fine and then discover the problem when they try to open a bank account, sign a stamped tenancy or extend. DE Rantau exists to make the same life lawful; the friction of applying is much lower than the friction of unwinding a bad status.

Source: Immigration Department Malaysia — Social Visit Pass conditions

Common mistakes to avoid

Applying for DE Rantau against the lower digital/technology income floor when your profession sits on the higher non-technology track — check your category on MDec's portal first
Budgeting an MM2H property purchase against the programme minimum without checking Penang's own state floor, which is higher and differs island versus mainland
Working remotely on a 90-day Social Visit Pass and then finding banks, landlords and JPJ all want a long-term pass you do not hold
Letting an Employment Pass lapse between jobs — it is tied to the employer, and a gap means starting the filing over rather than transferring it
Relying on any MM2H guidance that mentions a monthly-income requirement, which the 2024 restructure abolished

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.