Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments
Previously, this private university in Malaysia has been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. There was a major misgiving over the university’s accreditation, allegations about racism, and complaints about poor facilities.
But as worrying as these reported problems are, these scandals have exposed a deeper issue in the university.
A few of the international students voiced out that they are now in Malaysia illegally due to no fault of their own.
This includes passport and visa issues.
In Real Life reached out to Ahmed*, Rafiq*, Ahmeh*, Tasya*, Alex*, and Zac* who are international students at this university.
*Names have been changed to protect their identity.
“The university keeps our passports.”
Ahmed was frustrated. He told us, “As an international student, my passport is my identification. It’s illegal for me to go around without it.”
“However, in this university, they have a habit of holding our passports.”
Towards the end of the semester, the university would instruct their international students to hand in their passports. This is for visa purposes.
Picture: an email instructing ahmed to hand in his passport
While this is iffy as it is, it’s not the worse part. The problem is that the university takes incredibly long with the visa renewals and this exposes the students to danger.
“Most recently, I gave them my passport in February, but I still have not gotten it back yet,” Ahmed continued in disbelief.
Ahmed has been without his passport for 5 months.
Ahmed is right. It is illegal for a foreigner to be without their passport in Malaysia
According to the official portal of Immigration Department of Malaysia, a foreigner in Malaysia is considered illegal if they fail to produce a passport upon request.
The penalty for the offence is a fine not exceeding RM10,000, or up to 5 years of jail, or/and whipping of not more than 6 strokes.
Source: immigration department of malaysia
Furthermore, according to the Passport Act 1966, it is illegal to hold another person’s passport.
Source: passport act 1966
But why would the university hold a student’s passport like that?
“To force us to pay,” Ahmed said. “They have outright refused to return my passport until I pay for the next semester.”
The university management has said that much in writing. In an email shared with us by another student, the Student Services Department stated, “Please make sure that you don’t have any outstanding and you have registered before the passport can be released to you.”
“The university knowingly let our visas expire.”
Equally exasperated was Rafiq whose visa has expired because of the university’s negligence.
Rafiq surrendered his passport to the university in September 2020. His visa was going to expire in November 2020.
On 1st October 2020, he sent the university’s visa department an email to follow up on the renewal process.
The university replied that it was “still in process with immigration”. He got the same answer again when he inquired one month later.
Come November, Rafiq started to get nervous. The expiry date of his visa was drawing near.
Yet, he was told the same thing — apparently, his passport was still with immigration.
Picture: on 1st october, the university told rafiq that his passport was being processed by immigration
Picture: rafiq emailed them on 16th november and again 2 days later, asking for updates on his visa.
Eventually, Rafiq’s visa expired
But here is the funny thing.
When he called EMGS to clarify, he was told that EMGS had sent a letter to the university, instructing them to submit Rafiq’s passport alongside the required letter.
In other words, Rafiq smelled a rat.
He suspected that the university did not submit his passport to the immigration at all. So, he called immigration and confirmed his suspicions. The university did not submit his application to renew his visa!
But that was not the end of it.
By the end of February 2021, after some to and fro, Rafiq assumed that his visa had been taken care of. So, he tried to register for the next semester.
But, surprise, surprise, he could not! Instead, he was contacted by the university’s visa department via Whatsapp.
The visa department told him to collect his passport because the visa had expired!
“WHATT??!!” Rafiq exclaimed. He was mortified. This happened despite him handing in his passport in September for a November expiry date. He had left his passport with the university for 5 months!
Picture: the visa department informing rafiq that his visa has expired
Rafiq was not the only one
Another student, Ahmed, had a similar experience. He handed in his passport more than two months ahead of the expiry date, then followed up regularly.
But in the end, not only did he not receive his visa on time, he was even fined RM100 in “late charges”.
When Ahmed confronted the university, they told him that they only submit one passport to immigration per week. With thousands of international students on campus, Ahmed thought this was ridiculous.
Another student who fell victim to the university’s inefficiency was Tasya. She applied for a renewal of visa, then paid the university RM2,000 for the process.
Most students take more than 3 years to finish their course, so their student permit was for that duration, and then they extended it as necessary. However, what the university did instead, was to open a new application for her.
This basically meant that on paper, she enrolled in the same programme again to get the extra few years.
When Tasya’s application did not come through, she started asking questions.
“The first time, they claimed to be waiting for a bank draft from the university’s finance department,” Tasya said.
“The second time, they were waiting for internal documents from the faculty,” she continued.
“And the third time,” Tasya shared with annoyance all over her face, “I found out that the system recorded me as unregistered. They had messed up my registration.”
Finally, Tasya’s student visa expired in April 2020. Because the school had messed up her visa processing, EMGS took down her application.
Now, Tasya is stuck in Malaysia illegally. She’s terrified.
The only solution the university offered was for her to pay for her tuition fees even though she had already paid for the semester that she was not registered in.
This happened on April 27th. To In Real Life’s knowledge, there has been no progress.
The repercussions of being without a visa
Now, Rafiq, Ahmed, and Tasya are in Malaysia illegally, which carries penalties on its own.
But to make matters worse, they could get pulled over at any time. If they get sick, they won’t be able to see a doctor.
Another student at this university, Alex, was actually arrested because of the expired visa. When he tried to call the university, they were of no help.
Every time the international students got into trouble, they would tell the authorities to speak to the university.
“But the university does not care, so where are we supposed to go when we need assistance?” Alex mused.
“There is no one to back us up. It gets lonely,” he murmured.
Some of the students have tried to stay in Malaysia legally by getting a job…but this university will allow no such thing
If a person works with a student visa and they get caught, they might be deported back to their home country.
A person can not hold a student visa and a work visa at the same time. And to get a work visa, the person must have a job offer and a letter from the university stating that the person is no longer a student.
Zac received a job offer.
“When I got a job offer, I wrote to the university to inform them that I had deferred from my programme and would no longer be a full-time student at this university. But when my employer contacted them for a background check, they told them in error that I was still a full-time student,” Zac said.
As you might have guessed, Zac missed out on the job.
Tasya also tried to get a job so she could legally stay in Malaysia since the university’s accreditation bungle meant that she would not get her visa renewed.
When she found out that her PhD was not getting accredited, she quickly applied for a job and contacted the university for a release letter.
“But they refused to provide the letter. I had to chase them for a month but by the time they were convinced, I lost the job because it was too late to start,” she complained.
Moving forward, what should the university Do?
“Shut the school down,” Ahmed said.
“This university should not exist anymore. There’s nothing you can do to improve it. It’s unethical and disorganised,” Zac emphasised.
Alex suggested, “The EMGS should warn the students who want to enrol in this university on how it is being run.”
“The university never takes accountability for their actions. Everything just gets swept under the rug,” Tasya mentioned.
They are all understandably angry.
The question is, will the university accept accountability?
Legal disclaimer: We have provided anonymity to these students to protect their privacy, however we keep proof of their claims in our internal folders for any further legal representation. Our information may be updated as more new information becomes available.
For more stories like this, read My Boyfriend Quit His College Because They Didn’t Teach Him Anything – Here’s His Story and I Made These Mistakes During My College Years – and Here’s Why You Shouldn’t
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