Preparations for Foreign Spouse Moving to Malaysia?

Hi,

I'm an American-Egyptian, living in Egypt. InsyaAllah I'm getting engaged to a Malaysian and we're planning to move back to Malaysia within 1-2 years. So I'm wondering what to expect in my situation.

I've been to Malaysia before visiting friends, but I expect living there would be a different story.

I'm a native speaker of English and Arabic, and I'm self learning Malay and Japanese. I previously studied Mandarin Chinese, but hardly have any confidence in my Chinese language skills.

I've heard it's hard to get employment for foreigners and that more importance is put on your degree. Makes me worry because my work experience so far has nothing to do with my university degree. I'm currently working on a diploma to prepare teachers of Arabic to non-native speakers. I've never taught before, but I'm trying to broaden my employment options.

So what I'm looking for now is information to help me prepare for life over there. What can I do to be better employable? We probably won't be living in KL or Selangor for long.. How's life for foreign spouses elsewhere?

I have Malaysian friends, but most of them don't live where we're expecting to move. Any foreign spouses want to share how they've adapted to life in Malaysia?

I've read about visa issues for foreign spouses, but can't grasp how hard it will actually be. My mother is a foreign spouse here, but Egyptian procedures and rules seem much easier.

Another thing is, how dependent are you on your spouse then? It doesn't sound very encouraging. Basically for any kind of official procedure, my spouse would have to accompany me. Am I understanding this correctly?

Any tips or experiences are most welcome. I know it may be too early to get overwhelmed, but I'd like to be prepared as much as possible. 


Thanks,
Dijah