Living
Permanent Licence
Permanent Licence
How you go about getting your Malaysian licence depends on which country issued your original licence, and this falls under three different categories. People from countries which have a reciprocal agreement with Malaysia fill in a form JPJ L1, which can be downloaded from the Road Transport Department (more commonly known as the JPJ) website (www.jpj.gov.my). This should be taken to the nearest office with originals and copies of your passport, work permit and dependents’ pass, your original licence and a colour photograph. If your licence is not in English you must also bring a translation certified by your embassy. The fee for the Malaysian licence is RM30 per year. You can check on the JPJ website to see if you fall into this category, which includes Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy and Singapore.
The second category is countries that don’t have a reciprocal agreement with Malaysia but which issue licences recognised by Malaysia. Officially you can be asked to retake your test, but in practice this very seldom happens. You must get approval from the Driving Licensing Division at JPJ headquarters in Putrajaya, by filling in form Lampiran B2, downloadable from the website, before following the procedure with JPJ L1 outlined above. Again, the JPJ website has a comprehensive list of countries in this category, including the UK, USA, South Africa, Canada and Ireland.
If you’re unlucky enough to have a licence issued by a country that doesn’t fall into either of the above two categories, you must take the driving theory and practice tests as if you were a new driver.
If all this sounds like a lot of hard work, you can ask an agent to do the conversion on your behalf. Since the process involves your personal documents only use an agent if they have been personally recommended to you by someone you trust.
How you go about getting your Malaysian licence depends on which country issued your original licence, and this falls under three different categories. People from countries which have a reciprocal agreement with Malaysia fill in a form JPJ L1, which can be downloaded from the Road Transport Department (more commonly known as the JPJ) website (www.jpj.gov.my). This should be taken to the nearest office with originals and copies of your passport, work permit and dependents’ pass, your original licence and a colour photograph. If your licence is not in English you must also bring a translation certified by your embassy. The fee for the Malaysian licence is RM30 per year. You can check on the JPJ website to see if you fall into this category, which includes Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy and Singapore.
The second category is countries that don’t have a reciprocal agreement with Malaysia but which issue licences recognised by Malaysia. Officially you can be asked to retake your test, but in practice this very seldom happens. You must get approval from the Driving Licensing Division at JPJ headquarters in Putrajaya, by filling in form Lampiran B2, downloadable from the website, before following the procedure with JPJ L1 outlined above. Again, the JPJ website has a comprehensive list of countries in this category, including the UK, USA, South Africa, Canada and Ireland.
If you’re unlucky enough to have a licence issued by a country that doesn’t fall into either of the above two categories, you must take the driving theory and practice tests as if you were a new driver.
If all this sounds like a lot of hard work, you can ask an agent to do the conversion on your behalf. Since the process involves your personal documents only use an agent if they have been personally recommended to you by someone you trust.
