There’s more travel simplicity in store for the Asia-Pacific region, with the announcement that those heading to Malaysia from 1st August 2022 are no longer required to complete the Traveller’s Card within the MySejahtera app prior to departure.
This form required you to provide your passport information and state your flight and accommodation details, but had already been removed for Malaysian nationals, regardless of whether they were visiting the country (e.g. Malaysian Singapore residents) or were returning home from a trip.
The latest relaxation follows the removal of pre-departure testing for fully vaccinated travellers heading to Malaysia on 1st May 2022.
In more good news for some of our readers, Malaysia has also removed pre-departure testing and five days of quarantine for unvaccinated travellers, harmonising entry requirements for all travellers to completely pre-pandemic norms.
Traveller’s Card scrapped
Non-Malaysians arriving in Malaysia from overseas on or before 31st July 2022 were required to complete the Traveller’s Card within the MySejahtera app prior to departure.
In theory your MySejahtera app including your completed health declaration was checked by immigration officials on arrival in Malaysia, in order for you to enter the country, but in our experience this was never done.
We have travelled from Singapore to Malaysia twice by air and once by land since the borders were relaxed, both during and after the ‘VTL days’, and we have never been asked to show the Traveller’s Card, MySejahtera app or proof of vaccination by any immigration officer.
Only our airline (Jetstar and Malaysia Airlines respectively) has requested to see the documents at the check-in desk, but after that the form was never asked for.
Its removal will therefore likely speed up your departure check-in process, rather than making things any quicker once you arrive in Malaysia.
Vaccination requirements also scrapped
Like testing requirements, COVID-19 vaccination has been progressively dropped as a prerequisite for travel to many countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Malaysia has followed suit, removing pre-departure testing the mandatory five days of quarantine for unvaccinated arriving travellers from August 2022.
From 1st August 2022, all travellers are allowed to enter Malaysia regardless of their COVID-19 vaccination status and do not require a pre-departure or on-arrival COVID-19 test. There are no quarantine orders related to COVID-19 enforced by the Malaysian Government upon arrival.
Malaysian Government
Until 31st July 2022, Malaysia required unvaccinated travellers to:
- conduct a pre-departure test, upload the result on the MySejahtera app
- have a supervised COVID-19 ART test within 24 hours of arriving
- complete five days of quarantine at your own accommodation or hotel
- have a COVID-19 PCR test on the fourth day of quarantine, or a COVID-19 ART test on the fifth day, after which the quarantine ends subject to a negative result.received
Removal of all these requirements restores completely pre-COVID norms for those entering Malaysia from 1st August 2022, with no vaccination, quarantine or testing requirements imposed on any travellers.
Malaysia – Singapore process
Fully vaccinated travellers returning from Malaysia to Singapore will follow the latest Vaccinated Travel Framework (VTF) process, as outlined below, which is already test-free and quarantine-free.
Singapore Vaccinated Travel Framework
Process
- Be fully vaccinated with a WHO-approved vaccine, or be aged 12 or under in the current calendar year (i.e. born in 2010 or later, for 2022 arrivals)
- Submit your SG Arrival Card (SGAC) within three days of arrival to Singapore
- Apply for an entry visa (for visa-required nationalities only)
- Take any flight from or via any country to Singapore and enter quarantine-free, or enter via sea from Indonesia or by land from Malaysia
Singapore Citizens, Permanent Residents and Long-Term pass holders are exempt from the requirement to complete the SGAC when arriving via the land border from Malaysia, but must still complete it when arriving by air.
There is now no requirement for tourist visitors to be fully vaccinated or complete any COVID-19 tests in order to make quarantine-free trips to:
Additionally, unvaccinated travellers can make quarantine-free trips to the following countries, with a negative COVID-19 test:
- Cambodia
- India
- Laos
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- South Korea (testing applies regardless of vaccination status)
- Thailand
Countries in Europe have traditionally taken the lead with COVID-19 restriction relaxations that eventually make their way to Asia, and places like the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy have now ditched all COVID-19 entry regulations.
This part of the world following suit is almost inevitable, which is good news for more travel simplicity to come.
Summary
Post-COVID travel to Malaysia is now just as simple as it was pre-COVID, with the requirement for foreigners to complete a Traveller’s Card prior to departure now removed.
It wasn’t checked on arrival in Malaysia anyway, in our experience, with only your airline at check in following the process, so this change will hopefully speed up the departure airport experience significantly.
Differentiated measures for unvaccinated travellers have also been axed, returning the travel process to completely pre-pandemic norms, with no testing, forms or quarantine for anyone.
(Cover Photo: Shutterstock)
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Free and easy visiting Malaysia now. There was briefly a requirement to fill in a physical arrival/departure card but this must have been scrapped soon after it was implemented. I hope this is still the case.