Please help British expat

I think you should seek the advice of the British embassy.

Anyone recommending tbe British embassy or cinsulate as they are now known plainly hadnt used them. IF you can find them open IF you get any assistabce you have done more than me. I have 11 staff here and been here in and out 18 yrs.Ny other office is hk .now I sm here full time.Embassies are totally useless.Believe it or not you cannot get a relkacenent British passport from the Briitsh xzxxsulate.Its processed in hk takes 2.months.
You need to get your passport.NOBODY CAN TAKE THAT FROM YOU EVER. go to uk and sort your affairs from there.Malaysia is notoriousky pedestrian at doing ANYTHING  unless you wave a fat brown envelope under the table ..dont look for help or ever answer any correspondences.YOU WILL BE SCAMMED. GET YOUR PP. TAXES IRRELEVANT AND FOREIGNERS ARE ALWAYS WRONG AND AKWAYS HAVE TO PAY. GOOD LUCK. stop being so nice it doesnt help here.

Are you looking to leave for good or are you going back for a visit then coming back? The reason I ask is if you are leaving Malaysia for good then the school probably want to cancel your EP and do tax clearance to get confirmation that you don’t owe any tax to the government. It’s a normal procedure for a when an expat is leaving Malayisa for good and for that they need to submit your passport. If you are just going back for a visit and coming back then they don’t need to do this and you are free to leave but obviously you will need to apply for entry approval from immigration to come back as you are leaving during the MCO. Ideally you should also apply for exit approval as they may ask for this at the airport.

I’m so sorry I didn’t make this clearer. I am wanting to leave for good

Ah ok then yes makes sense they are asking for your passport because they need to cancel your EP then apply for the tax clearance. Here explains the process. https://toughnickel.com/personal-financ … and-Local.

But I very much doubt given the MCO you’ll be able to get the process completed quick enough to be able to leave next week. This explains the process and consequences https://www.pwc.com/my/en/perspective/g … es-do.html

Thank you so much. So currently tax office is closed but we have a flight booked for a few weeks time. So if this doesn’t get sorted we are not able to leave indefinitely? What I mean is. if the tax office say doesn’t open for another 2 months what are we meant to do? Thank you again

Honestly that part I’m not sure off. Once they cancel your EP you have to leave within 30 days of the cancellation. Maybe you can try to contact an immigration consultant to see what they advise they normally do free consultation ? I have contacted this lady before june@moorebzi.com.  Normally your employer would be required to hold onto your last pay until the tax clearance is done but in this case you don’t have a last pay to hold onto. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.

Thank you for all you advice it is very much appreciated 😊

This is definitely one for the British High Commission. Have you approached it and, if so, what was the response. Good luck to you.

I am also a Brit wanting to repatriate back to the UK. Where are you flying to and will you need to quarantine? Let me know before I book my flight.

I'm also a teacher. If you officially resign before the end of you contract you still need to do tax clearance. This means you need to get a letter confirming you have left the school. Then you need to go to the tax office & get it officially rubber-stamped.

Alternatively, what some of my expat teacher colleagues did when leaving (they had a clause saying they had to repay 3 months salary if leaving before end of contract) was to tell the school they needed to go home temporarily for some emergency (funeral, mother sick etc...). When they were home, they sent an email saying they were very sorry but could not return because of critical developments - hundreds of apologies. The contract is then invalid because they are outside Malaysia so they have no responsibility to pay any contractual dues. As for the tax, that would still need to be paid. Hope this helps! Let me know how it goes.

Clara,

Good luck to you - it is not good to be tied up by bureaucracy which seems not to be able to see the human factor and only looks at regulations. Hope you make it back smoothly and safely.

Indeed that is true. Similarly, I also wish you all the best.

Another thing that can be done to get the EP canceled is trying to get an emergency approval from ESD or whatever authority issued the pass. It's nowhere written officially but it happens. I was in this situation when trying to change job last year and everything was closed. I managed to get an emergency appointment and got existing EP cancelled. Your employer needs to write to them a few times because they wont give u a slot in one go. I got it in two attempts.

No harm trying.

ATB!

I believe your school doesn't really know the process. If someone is on unpaid leave or receiving no payment from the employment, employer doesn't need to submit any tax return for them. Just challenge them and ask them to find out what is the correct process of cases like this and just let them to follow it.

I hope you will be fine.
Good luck

How about checking with the school and relevant tax office to see if they can accept a notarised/certified copy of your passport?