Malaysia's Immigration Department addresses "MyTravelPass causing delay" claims

According to Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia, the delay is unlinked to the MyTravelPass (MTP) facility. There is a high volume of applications, thus requiring more processing time for approval, while abiding by the MCO regulations.

In response to a reader's letter published in The Star that the Malaysian Immigration Department's (Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia, or JIM) MyTravelPass (MTP) facility is causing delays in travel to and from the country and that the MTP requirements were not made public, JIM has released a statement to clarify the issue on Monday (13 September 2021).

In its statement, JIM called attention to the press conference held on 7 October 2020 by the Director General of Immigration, Dato' Indera Khairul Dzaimee, to inform the public that the application for entry and exit permission for Malaysian citizens and foreigners must be made through the MyTravelPass system.

"The announcement received extensive coverage in the local and international media. Since then, until today, the department has always made announcements to the public through mass media and social media," JIM added.

Between 7 October 2020 to 10 September 2020, JIM had received a total of 356,510 applications. Of this total, 6,697 applications were cancelled, 208,509 passed, and 127,465 were rejected. The total number processed was 13,000 applications managed by three taskforces.

Additionally, the application process time period had to be increased from seven days to 14 days due to the need for additional processing time linked to the increasing number of applications.

Further, the department emphasised that the enforcement of MTP is in line with the travel restrictions of Malaysia's Movement Control Order (PKP).

"Enforcement of MTP is to control movement as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and this is proven [helpful] as of August 2021, COVID-19 positive import cases recorded is less than 0.4% of the total COVID-19 cases in Malaysia."

On that note, JIM advised the public to "always be sensitive and take note of" all the latest government announcements and regulations, as well as review the relevant procedures before planning a trip abroad. On top of that, all application conditions must be understood and application requirements such as document attachments must be met before submitting the application.

"Careful assessment needs to be made to prevent the spread of positive import cases of COVID-19 into the country," JIM reiterated.

For the latest information about MyTravelPass, locals can visit JIM's official website.

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