Foreigners with long-term passes can now use Immigration's KLIA autogate system

SEPANG: The Immigration Department has extended the use of its autogate entry system at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to foreigners holding long-term visitor passes, among others.

Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Khairul Dzaimee Daud said this would benefit over 1.86 million Temporary Work Visit Pass holders and Long-Term Visit Pass holders.

The autogate facility could only be by Malaysians before, but a pilot programme was carried out from Sept 16 to Nov 15 involving foreigners holding Long-Term Visit Passes.

"The 1.86 million foreigners this facility benefits comprises 1.36mil Temporary Work Visit Pass holders; 169,263 Citizen Spouse Pass holders; 68,012 Student Pass holders; 14,046 Resident Pass holders; 52,932 Malaysia My 2nd Home pass holders; 12,335 Special Visit Passes; 9,345 Dependents of Social Visit Passes (PLS); 91,198 Employment Passes and 77,445 other pass holders under the supervision of the Expatriate Services Division," he told reporters at KLIA on Tuesday (Nov 15).

He said since the country's borders opened on April 1, a total of 10,400,045 people had entered the country.

"Most visitors are from Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, India and China.

"A total of 5.9 million Singaporeans entered the country which makes up about 60% of the 10.4 million visitors who entered Malaysia," he said.

He added that they were now studying the viability of extending the autogate entry system to Singaporeans at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar entry point in Johor Baru.

He said the move would benefit Singaporeans who wish to enter Malaysia for social purposes, meetings or tourism.

"We expect to have the system up and running by Christmas (Dec 25) as vendors have to make minor adjustments to the system so it can read Singaporean passport microchips," he said.