Malaysia Investor Visa — MM2H

The threshold has two mandatory limbs, not one. The first is a fixed deposit with a Malaysian financial institution licensed under the Financial Services Act 2013 or the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013, set at USD 1 million for the Platinum category, USD 500,000 for Gold and USD 150,000 for Silver.

After approval the participant may withdraw a maximum of 50 per cent of the principal value of that deposit, and only for purchasing a residence, education, medical care and tourism activities in Malaysia.

The second limb is housing, and it is the long-term constraint: every category is required to purchase and own a residence after approval, valued at RM 2 million or above for Platinum, RM 1 million or above for Gold and RM 600,000 or above for Silver.

That residence may not be sold for ten years, though it may be upgraded by buying a higher-value property than the current one. Failure to comply with any of the terms results in the MM2H pass being revoked.

The 2024 revision drops all offshore income requirements across all three categories — previously a distinct barrier of this programme.

The programme is open to nationals of every sovereign country with diplomatic relations with Malaysia, aged 25 and above in all categories, and applications must be submitted through an MM2H tour operating business licensed by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture under the Tourism Industry Act 1992

What is granted is an MM2H pass with a multiple entry visa, and the rights attached to it differ by tier. The Platinum tier may work and do business. Gold and Silver may not, and the document states plainly that the relevant pass must be requested for that. The offshore income requirement has been dropped for all three tiers.

But the heaviest structural point is not about rights; it is about where the decision sits. The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture runs the programme, while all immigration matters including the final approval fall to the Ministry of Home Affairs through the Immigration Department.

Appeals, if any, are under the purview of the Minister of Home Affairs. The ministry that runs the programme is not the ministry that issues the pass.

The second heavy point is that there is no direct filing route. The application must be submitted and completed through an MM2H tour operating business licensed by the Ministry under the Tourism Industry Act 1992 - and every application, new or renewal, must go through the One Stop Centre MM2H.

There is therefore a compulsory intermediary, and the document does not price that intermediary's service.

Who may take part is defined by state relations rather than by a list: the programme is open to every eligible foreign individual from sovereign countries with diplomatic relations with Malaysia. The minimum age is 25 for all three tiers.

And one provision few programmes carry: if the principal dies, their MM2H pass can be transferred to the next-of-kin among the registered dependants. The pass does not die with the holder.

Finally, two things about this document itself that a reader must know before relying on it: its disclaimer states that in the event of any disagreement the Bahasa Melayu version takes precedence, and the Ministry reserves the right to amend any terms on operational matters.

The MM2H pass carries a Multiple Entry Visa and runs for twenty years in the Platinum category, fifteen years in Gold and five years in Silver, all three renewable.

Once the maximum years of the category are complete the pass is renewed on a five-year cycle, and the renewal fee differs by category — RM 5,000 for Platinum, RM 3,000 for Gold and RM 1,500 for Silver, each covering the principal and dependants together.

Renewals are filed with the One Stop Centre MM2H or the Immigration Department, with a copy of a valid passport, the latest medical report and health insurance.

One technical constraint is easily missed: the validity of the hologram security sticker in the passport does not follow the term of the pass but the validity of the passport, so a participant whose passport expires before the pass ends must have the sticker reissued in the new passport.

On authority, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture runs the programme but all immigration matters including final approval rest with the Ministry of Home Affairs through the Immigration Department, and appeals fall under the purview of the Minister of Home Affairs.

The terms document dates itself accurate as of 22 July 2024 in the footer of every page, although the file sits in a January 2026 upload folder; and the document gives the Bahasa Melayu version precedence should the two versions disagree

The presence obligation is 90 days cumulative per year in Malaysia, about 24 per cent of a year. It is cumulative rather than continuous, so it does not require the participant to live in Malaysia - but neither does it permit a full year away.

There is a transfer of that obligation which very few residence routes allow: for participants within a given age band, those days may be fulfilled by the dependants instead of by the principal. The presence obligation is therefore not necessarily the obligation of the person whose name is on the pass.

That age band must be read carefully, because the English text of the document is unreadable at exactly that point. The Gold and Silver sections both say "25 to 49 years old".

The Platinum section says "participants between the age of 25 to years old" - the closing figure is missing. And the document's own disclaimer states that the Bahasa Melayu version takes precedence in the event of disagreement, so the Platinum age band must be checked in the Malay text rather than inferred from the other two tiers.

The real long-term constraint is not the day count but the house. After approval, purchasing and owning a residence is compulsory, and selling is not allowed for ten years - the property may only be upgraded by buying one of higher value than the current one.

The document attaches a single sanction to everything: failure to comply with any of the terms will result in the MM2H pass being revoked. That sanction does not distinguish between heavy and light terms.

The list is unusually wide by regional standards. A participant may bring a spouse; biological children, stepchildren and adopted children below the age of 21, while those between 21 and 34 must be unemployed and single while in Malaysia; medically certified children with disabilities, with no age limit; and parents and parents-in-law.

The Platinum category additionally allows a foreign maid. There are no participating fees for dependants, even though the principal fee reaches RM 200,000 in the Platinum category.

Children may pursue education up to tertiary level at any government-recognised higher learning institution, using the existing MM2H pass or being given a Student Pass automatically. Two provisions stand out.

First, the obligation to be present in Malaysia for 90 cumulative days a year may be fulfilled by the dependants in place of the principal, for participants aged between 25 and 49 — the dependants can carry the residence obligation.

Notably, in the Platinum category the document itself prints no upper bound for that age band, the sentence reading only between the age of 25 to years old, while the Gold and Silver categories both print the full band of 25 to 49.

Second, in the event of the death of the principal the deceased MM2H pass is transferable to the next-of-kin among the registered dependants, so the arrangement does not end with the named holder

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Malaysia passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Malaysia passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Malaysia passport reaches 194 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

Unlike the same country Premium Visa Programme, the official MM2H portal addresses tax directly, and the sentence sits under the category benefits: participants receive tax exemption on foreign funds or income, such as their fixed deposit.

Three conditions on the same page are needed to understand what that exemption attaches to. First, on presence: participants aged below 50 are required to be present in Malaysia for 90 days cumulative in one year.

Second, on the deposit: after approval as an MM2H participant, a maximum withdrawal of 50% of the principal fixed deposit value is allowed, and only for purchasing residences, for education, or for medical and tourism related activities in Malaysia.

Third, on property: it is compulsory to purchase and own a residence after obtaining approval, and selling that residence is not allowed for 10 years unless it is to upgrade by purchasing one of higher value.

On duration, the MM2H pass is renewable and its validity depends on the validity of the participant passport; where the passport expires before the pass, the participant must renew the security sticker for inclusion in the new passport, and that sticker is renewable every five years or according to passport validity.

Read this cell within its scope. The source states an exemption for foreign funds or income; it says nothing about income arising in Malaysia, gives no rates, and does not state whether a participant becomes a Malaysian tax resident — that status is settled by general tax law and measured in days of presence.

In addition, the per-category figure tables on this page are not recoverable from the plain page source, so this cell carries no per-category figures

The participating fee is a one-off, and the gap between the three tiers is wide enough to state the programme's design by itself: RM200,000 for Platinum, RM3,000 for Gold, RM1,000 for Silver.

Platinum costs 66.66 times Gold and 200 times Silver, a difference of exactly RM197,000 against Gold. No participating fee is charged for dependants, in any of the three tiers.

The second item is compulsory but the document does not price it: the service fee of the licensed tour operating business, the intermediary every applicant is required to go through.

The document creates the obligation to use that intermediary without fixing what it may charge, so any budget built from this document alone is missing a cost the document itself makes mandatory.

The third item is also compulsory and also unpriced: a medical check-up at a clinic or hospital on the panel appointed by the ministry, for the principal and all dependants, carried out after approval to participate has been received.

The document gives its reason for appointing them: so that the services and charges are standardised for all applicants. The charges therefore have a standard, but that standard is not printed in the document.

Two further items attach to keeping the pass later: a renewal application must carry health insurance and a latest medical report, so the medical cost is not a single outlay at filing but a recurring one at every renewal cycle.

And the value of the residence that must be purchased belongs to the capital-threshold cell of this table, not to this one.