Expatriate Services Division (ESD) is under Immigration Department of Malaysia, where companies that intend to hire expatriates with a work permit in Malaysia will have to first register with the ESD. Upon approval from the Immigration Department of Malaysia, your company may apply for a range of Expatriate Visa or passes including Employment Pass, Residence Pass-Talent, Professional Visit Pass, Dependent Pass, Long-Term Social Visit Pass, and Social visit (Temporary Employment) – Foreign Maid Pass applications.

Company that want to register for ESD Malaysia must comply the following requirements:
| EQUITY | PAID-UP CAPITAL |
|---|---|
| 100% Local Owned | RM250,000 |
| Joint Venture (minimum foreign equity is 30%) | RM350,000 |
| 100% Foreign Owned | RM500,000 |
| Foreign owned companies running Wholesale, Retail and Trade (WRT) where clearance from the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (MDTCC) is compulsory. | RM1,000,000 |
ESD registration is NOT an easy and straight forward process, without the right structure and strong justifications, the ESD registration is very likely to be returned or rejected that will cause further delays to appeal that can take up to few months for the result. Hence, we strongly advise you to let Professionals like us to handle the ESD registration.
With our vast experience of more than 18 years in this industry, we are able to assist clients with a high success rate.
To conduct your business in Malaysia with a premise, the company would require a business premise license from the local town council and/or specific industry sector license. These licenses are also required during the ESD registration and WRT clearance application stage.
The process of ESD registration can be rather difficult and time consuming, if you are not fully familiar with all procedures and documents required by the Malaysian Immigration Department. On top of that, if your ESD registration is returned or rejected, it will take a few months to appeal again for it. If this appeal is rejected, your company will not be able to apply for employment passes or any other immigration related passes.
Hence, we strongly advise you to let our Professionals handle the ESD registration for you from the beginning to the end, so that a) the success of the ESD application is almost guaranteed, and b) your Company is free from the trouble of going through this time-consuming process.
We will make sure that you can focus on the parts of your Business that really matter to you.
Assuming the submission of all required documents is in order, ideally it takes fourteen working days for the registration process to be completed. However, if the Malaysian immigration department requires extra supporting documents, support letters or any other license from relevant agencies, the ESD Registration processing will take more time.