Like a lot of foreigners based in Malaysia I’ve spent large chunks of the last few years dealing with immigration regulations that are byzantine at best and downright confusing the rest of the time. I’ve had professional passes, consulting passes and just about everything else you can think of over the last few years.

This week I had to renew my visa. As the spouse of a Malaysian citizen I can apply for yearly renewable visas that enable me to live and, in the last couple of years – thanks to one of the myriad changes in legislation – work here.  This long-awaited change was introduced to address the huge brain drain in the country.

Employment passes had become so difficult and fiendishly complex to apply for in Malaysia – not to mention the army of agents and under the table payments it required – that many international couples simply gave up and opted to move to other countries (usually the home country of the non-Malaysian partner) where the systems are far more open and inviting.

But I wanted to give it a go here. When we found out last year that I could get the right to work under the spouse visa it was a huge sigh of relief for both of us. I run my own company, so the pressure of conforming to ever changing regulations on the employment of foreigners was a huge drain, both in terms of time and money.

Obviously there are some arcane requirements: the check-lists for the permits ask for details that are almost impossible to obtain or don’t relate to your kind of business. So, you’re pretty much forced to apply with incomplete documentation and hope that they grant you what you want. In fact, there is often a difference between the checklists that you’re given and the actual forms and photocopies needed.

I asked what was required to renew the current visa – it pays to check in advance as the system seems to be tweaked or altered every 6 months or so – and was told to fill in the form given and get a statutory declaration from a commissioner of oaths. Pretty much a 5 minute job.

When we returned the next day to actually lodge the application we were given another checklist which asked for a whole bunch of other stuff and forms we hadn’t been given. As the officer clipped the forms we did have to the list and gave us a processing number we figured we’d go ahead and try. Anyway. We were asked for a photocopy of my wife’s IC – which hadn’t been mentioned the day before – and luckily I had one in my over-prepared file.

It was actually the second time I’d been there in a month. Last month I renewed the working stamp. That required me to drop a bunch of forms off and come back after 4 days. I was under the impression that the four days were to check that the company existed and filed its taxes etc etc and that when I came back they just had to stamp me and go.

So when I came back the following week I was surprised to have to wait from 10 in the morning until nearly 4pm. When I asked why, I was told that the boss was in a meeting and he was the only one who could decide to approve the permit. I was under the impression that the 4 days of processing were to decide whether to grant it or not.

Anyway, it was the same story this week. Lodge it at 10 and then wait around until 4 for somebody to approve it. But the real question is why is it such a torturous process? A friend recently applied for her Singapore work permit. She was given an appointment time, she turned up and the whole process was finished in under an hour. Quick, efficient, easy. Why not something like that here?

Instead there’s just confusion. I live in Putrajaya, less than three km from the immigration department. But they only process spouse applications for Chinese and African nationals. So, I have to apply at the dilapidated offices in Pusat Bandar Damansara. The place smells like a toilet and it’s chaotic to say the least. The seats are uncomfortable, damaged and ripped. The walls are grubby – even the illuminated signs on most of the processing counters have stopped working.

It feels old and uncared for and the roomful often desperate foreigners respond by dropping rubbish on the floor and picking holes in the chairs, desks and furnishings. I have to admit that the staff do their best to be helpful but they seem to be dealing with a system  and a location that they know doesn’t work either.

And despite the opening hours posted on the wall outside the building, the social visa unit closes for an hour for lunch, from 1pm to 2pm. Nowhere is this signed or indicated. The staff just quietly slope off one by one until you’re left sitting in a room full of empty counters.

How about a staggered lunch break and shifts like in most other commercial and government offices. Most of the waiting people remain in their seats because they’re scared to leave and miss their number as they don’t know when the officers are coming back. And the other contradictions – a sign saying no food and drink and close by an F&N vending machine.

As I mentioned, the staff do their best to be helpful. They’ll tell you to come back after lunch but then look at you blankly when you ask what time that means. You suggest any time – 2, 3, 4 o’clock – and they’ll agree with you.  but they’ve got no more idea than you when the backroom staff will choose to look at your papers and make the necessary signatures.

If it’s designed as a way to put people off a life in Malaysia, then it’s incredibly successful. And for many of the less fortunate people in the room it’s an indication of the way Malaysia will treat them. It needs to be better.