Immigration Lawyer Blog
Malaysia is to abolish the visa-on-arrival (VOA) facility effective Monday (August 16, 2010), Immigration director-general Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman announced today. As such, all foreign nationals requiring a visa to enter the country must apply for it at the offices of Malaysian missions overseas, he said in a statement. He said the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants decided that the VOA facility granted to the nationals of several countries be abolished.
Mr. Othman added that the VOA facility is being abolished because it has been misused and this has had a negative effect on Malaysia.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had announced early this month that the VOA would no longer be issued at the country’s points of entry as there had been gross misuse of the facility.