How to get Malaysian Tourist Visa from Singapore?

Most of the world doesn’t need a visa to get into Malaysia, but if you are from one of those countries that need a visa to get into Malaysia and if you want to get this visa from Singapore then read on. Like every visa on this trip, I applied for my Malaysian tourist visa from a 3rd country, this time it happened to be Singapore. I had read online that the Malaysian embassy offered tourist visas from their Singapore office, but there were a lot of disputing claims going around, some of them saying that they offer tourist visas to only those who hold a resident ship in Singapore. 



Well, anyways, the Malaysian embassy doesn’t encourage personal walk-ins and hence I had to go through one of their appointed agents. Since I was staying in Chinatown, I tried applying for with the agents there, but they coaxed me not to apply for my visa in Singapore as they said the rejection rate of visas here was pretty high. I gave it much thought and left. But, I wasn’t convinced. How can an embassy reject all the tourist visa applications. So I went to Mustafa air travels in Little India. They said that 95% of applications do indeed get rejected. But, I was desperate and hence was ready to take the 5% chance. Mustafa travels told me that the total cost would be S$53 and if my visa got rejected, I would be refunded $23.

I was in for it. I asked them what should I do to increase my visa approval chances. They asked me to write a personal covering letter to go with the visa application form. Following are the documents I submitted for the application:

1) Visa application form
2) One passport size colour photograph with white background
3) A copy of my Singapore visa
4) A copy of my Singapore stamp in passport
5) A copy of my ticket out of Singapore
6) Personal covering letter
7) S$53 ($23 for visa, $20 for e-application and $10 is Mustafa’s fee)
8) Visa for next destination (if not going to home country)

This is how I wrote the personal covering letter:

To,
The Malaysian High Commission
Singapore

Respected Sir/Madam,

SUB: Request for tourist visa to Malaysia

I, Sankara Subramanian C, citizen of India with passport no (#) am a travel writer who has been traveling across Asia for the last 8 months. During these 8 months, I have been applying for my visas from every 3rd country. You can refer my passport for proof of the visas and stamps. As part of this trip, I would like to visit Malaysia too and hence am applying for my visa here in Singapore. I would be very grateful if you could provide me with a tourist visa to enter Malaysia.

Thanking you!

Your sincerely,
Sankara

P.S. I am headed to Philippines from Singapore before I enter Malaysia. I don’t need a visa to enter Philippines as I have a valid United States of America and Singapore visas on my passport. These existing visas allow me to get free stay of 21 days in Philippines without a visa.

This is what I did and luckily for me, I got my Malaysian tourist visa stamped on my passport a couple of days later.