How to replace your Malaysian spouse visa if you lost your passport?

Context: We recently renewed his spouse visa with the same process as last year (Read more: How to renew your spouse visa). Then we flew out of the country, and he lost his passport (with his spouse visa in it) while travelling.

So... how can my spouse enter Malaysia without a spouse visa now?

This post does not cover how he renewed his passport.

What we did before returning to Malaysia

Firstly, stay calm! Malaysia boleh.

Funnily, we lost his passport when Malaysia was having a 4-day long weekend due to public holidays. Boy, did we freak as we were nearing the date of our flight back to Malaysia.

1. Renewed his passport to enable him to travel out of the country.
2. Sent an enquiry to Immigration Dept Malaysia via this online inquiry system webpage. Received an email response in about 48 hours. Part of the email content is translated as below:

"INQUIRY:
My British husband lost his passport containing the newly approved EPLS visa in August. The passport was lost while he was visiting the United Kingdom. How can he re-enter Malaysia without an EPLS visa?

RESPONSE:
In this case: Report the loss of the passport to the UK authorities & get a new passport. The husband can re-enter Malaysia with a 90-day visa-free facility (British citizens are eligible). After arriving in Malaysia, he needs to go to the Malaysian Immigration Department to re-apply / transfer the Pas to a new passport by bringing: Copy of the passport loss report, Copy of the previous Pas approval (EPLS), Other supporting documents.  In short, he can still enter without a visa (90 days), then re-arrange the EPLS at Malaysian Immigration.

That's all, thank you.

This Message is Generated by Online Inquiry System (SPO)
Do Not Reply to This Message
Headquarters, Immigration Department of Malaysia
Federal Territory, Putrajaya
24-09-2025"

So, as advised, he entered Malaysia as a tourist, going through the immigration counter to stamp his passport upon entry. He now has 90 days to renew his spouse visa.

At the immigration department

To be safe, we still made an online appointment to the immigration department, even when there is no dropdown option specifically for this kind of visa transfer request.

Fortunately, there was no need to restart another visa renewal application. We were requested to submit these documents to transfer his spouse visa to his new passport:

• A Malaysian police report for the passport loss
• Approval status email of his latest visa renewal request
• His new passport
• Copy of his new passport
• Copy of my IC
• Copy of our marriage certificate

Do still bring along all original documents for validation as well.

An overseas report of the loss passport does not seem to fit Malaysian Immigration's requirements.🤷‍♀️

After we submitted the documents, we were then asked to wait. The immigration officer went off and came back with a file about 2inches thick (probably all our documents since the first visa application). We watched him flip through the documents thoroughly. After 2, 3 hours wait at the department, we got the passport back with a fresh new visa stuck in it. And BONUS, they even renewed his work visa along with it!

No payment or charges were requested for this transfer of visa. 👍

We did not clarify this with the officer, but we assumed he didn't have to fly out of the country again to "cancel out" his entry stamp into Malaysia la. Secretly hoping there won't be a problem the next time he needs to travel out.

How to report a lost international passport in Malaysia

Firstly, we were informed that we can only make a report at a local police headquaters, at their Special Branch (SB) department, not at any police station branches. And we will need to look for a Special Branch officer to lodge this report.

However, after being directed to the SB and interviewed, we were given an A5 slip of paper (a mini report?), and asked to head to Kaunter Aduan (Complaints Counter?) of the police station, basically where any daily police reports can be made (I'd describe it as the front desk of the station). My partner had to then lodge another police report to obtain an A4 police report (as attached image below).

In short, a spouse visa transfer is possible. You just need to fulfil the document submission requirements to enable the immigration officers to validate your status and clear security checks. Aal izz well!