Sarawak Employment Pass: frequently asked questions

EXPRT, the Expatriate Platform for Recruitment & Talent, is the Sarawak government’s online system for hiring expatriates into professional roles. It’s built for Non-Sarawakians, which covers West Malaysians and Sabahans as well as non-resident foreigners (NREs). For now it handles the Employment Pass (EP) only. GENESIS says the Professional Visit Pass (PVP) will be added soon.

Register an individual account on ALIANCE first. You can’t register your company account until you have one.

The expatriate has to meet all three:

• Age: at least 27. Applicants under 27 are considered case by case.
• Qualification and experience: a bachelor’s degree in a related field with at least 5 years’ experience, a diploma in a related field with at least 7 years’ experience, or a skills certificate in a related field with at least 10 years’ experience.
• Basic salary: at least RM3,000 a month.

No. They have to apply directly to Bahagian F of the Sarawak Immigration Department (Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia Negeri Sarawak, or JIMS). EXPRT won’t accept their applications.

GENESIS’s answer to this question is no. It says only private limited companies (Sdn. Bhd.) with a valid Registration of Company (ROC) number, registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM), are eligible, and that sole proprietorships and partnerships aren’t.

It depends on who owns the company:

• 100% Malaysian-owned: at least RM250,000
• Joint venture between foreign and local owners: at least RM350,000
• 100% foreign-owned: at least RM1,000,000

It depends on where the shareholder is from and, for a foreign national, on how the company is owned. Each shareholder needs at least:

• From Peninsular Malaysia or Sabah: RM50,000
• Foreign national, in a joint venture: RM100,000
• Foreign national, in a 100% foreign-owned company: RM150,000

Not at the moment. The application has to come from the company.

Yes. Put them all in the same application, with all the required documents for each of them.

GENESIS lists nine:

• Limited company
• Foreign limited company
• Sole proprietorship
• Partnership
• Limited liability partnership (LLP)
• Foreign limited liability partnership
• Professional limited liability partnership
• Non-profit organisation (NPO)
• Non-governmental organisation (NGO)

Every one of them has to meet the minimum shareholding requirement for employing an expatriate, except NPOs and NGOs, which are exempt.

It’s the pass that allows an expatriate to work in Sarawak, in a job paying at least RM3,000 a month. It’s issued by the Sarawak Immigration Department (JIMS).

Five years at most, counting the first approval and every renewal together. Once an expatriate reaches that limit, they have to leave the country and apply for a new EP if they want to keep working, and it’s up to the Sarawak government whether it’s approved.

• The job is full-time, and it isn’t filled by a Sarawakian.
• It pays at least RM3,000 a month.
• The pass is valid for one to five years, and it’s renewable.
• Dependent passes are allowed. They aren’t in EXPRT yet, and GENESIS says they’re coming soon.

Advertise the job on JobSarawak for at least 14 days. That’s how you get the Hiring Outcome Report (HOR) you need for the application. Four kinds of position are exempt from advertising: Key Post, Shareholder, Specialist and Cross-posting.

Log in to ALIANCE under both your user account and your company account, select the EXPRT module, and start the application from there.

An Employment Pass (EP) is a work permit that lets an expatriate be employed by an organisation in Malaysia. It follows the employment contract and can run for up to 60 months. A Professional Visit Pass (PVP) is for foreign talent whose professional qualifications are accepted, and it lasts up to 12 months.

In general, any eligible sector can apply. The exception is these five, which can only apply for an expatriate who holds a shareholder position. Applications for non-shareholder positions in them aren’t allowed.

• Spa, reflexology, massage and health establishments
• Hairdressing, barber shops and beauty salons
• Manpower supply agencies
• Petty traders, hawkers and store operators
• Scrap and recycling businesses

One month from the date EXPRT generates it. You need it to apply for the e-Visa Dengan Rujukan (eVDR), which is the next step.

• Certificate of Incorporation (Form 9)
• Summary of share capital and shareholders or members (Form 24)
• Directors and officers (Form 49)
• Trade licence
• Tenancy agreement, or the sale and purchase (S&P) agreement for the property
• Latest printout of the company’s profile from SSM
• Latest annual financial statement, for joint ventures and wholly foreign-owned companies only
• Latest e-Filing with its receipt, only if the company has been operating for more than a year
• Company bank statement, required for new applications in the services sector and for every renewal

At least 12 months on the day you submit. If it has less than that, the expatriate has to renew it at the Sarawak Immigration Department (JIMS) before you submit the expatriate personnel application in EXPRT.

Use the timeline in the application. It shows how far along it is.

You apply for the e-Visa Dengan Rujukan (eVDR) and the eVISA, with the Sarawak Immigration Department (JIMS).

Outside EXPRT. Once you’ve downloaded the approved Approval Letter, you apply with the Sarawak Immigration Department (JIMS), on the government portal it designates.

You’ll need:

• Entry details: the entry point, the visa branch, the reference number, the date of entry, and a copy of the passport as proof of entry.
• For the eVDR: the date it was approved, and the approved eVDR itself to upload.
• For the eVISA: the visa pass number, its date of issue and its expiry date.

No. It depends on their nationality. GENESIS publishes a list of countries that don’t need an eVDR.

Because the law requires one. GENESIS says a Labour Licence is mandatory for employment under the Sarawak Labour Ordinance (Amendment) Act 2025, particularly for foreign expatriates, so it’s part of keeping the employment legally compliant.

As long as the Employment Pass. An expatriate’s Labour Licence follows the validity of their EP.

Automatically. EXPRT applies for it once the eVDR and eVISA have been verified, so there’s no separate application for you to make.

New EXPRT applications submitted on or after 1 November 2025, and every renewal submitted through EXPRT. Applications submitted before 1 November 2025 don’t need one.

Six months from the date the Employment Pass is approved. That’s your window to assign the local understudy candidate in EXPRT, or to update their details.

Not necessarily. It depends on the position and on what the approving government agencies recommend. A position may not need one if an understudy hasn’t been specified for it.

If one hasn’t been assigned within six months of the Employment Pass being approved, you won’t be able to go ahead with renewing it.

It’s the identity card for Non-Sarawakians, and it carries the holder’s information.

After the Employment Pass. Once you’ve collected the EP from the Sarawak Immigration Department (JIMS), you can book an NSIC collection appointment, and the card is processed and issued at that appointment.

On 1 January 2026. The charge applies to both new and renewal applications submitted through EXPRT.

RM1,854.00 for each approved expatriate. You have to pay it to get the Approval Letter.

No. You’re only charged for expatriates who are approved. Rejected and withdrawn applications aren’t charged.

Only after the Sarawak Government has approved the expatriate. That’s when the RM1,854.00 becomes due.

No. It’s only issued once the full payment has been received.

No. GENESIS says it applies only to applications approved on or after 1 January 2026.

You need an individual account and a registered company account on ALIANCE first. If you already have both, you can go straight ahead and submit the renewal.

The requirements haven’t changed. The difference is that you submit and manage the renewal online, so you can track its status, reuse supporting documents you’ve submitted before (where that’s allowed), and get it done more efficiently.

No. Once the Approval Letter is issued, the Labour Licence is applied for automatically.

No. You can submit the renewal directly through the system.

Yes, within three months of the expiry date. Once it’s been expired for more than three months, renewal isn’t allowed any more, and you’d have to submit a new application instead, where that’s possible.

Yes. A single renewal application can cover more than one expatriate, as long as you submit all the required documents for each of them.

Yes. Every supporting document has to be a certified true copy before you upload it. If you submitted the same document in an earlier application and it’s still valid, you can reuse it. Any new or updated document has to be certified as a true copy before it goes up.

Yes. You have to pay before you can download the Approval Letter and move on to the next stage.

No. It’s only issued once the full payment has been received successfully.

Carry on with the renewal, and make sure the application shows the updated position or salary. It won’t affect the renewal as long as the expatriate is still employed by the same company.