Guide on How & Process To Renounce Malaysia Citizenship And Conversion of Singapore Citizenship
*Updated April 2024*
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There are requests on guide on how to renounce Malaysia Citizenship before converting to Singapore Citizenship. Hence, I am sharing this post to give you guys an idea how it works during this COVID-19. Both process need to be done concurrently in order for you to save time and also getting the conversion done within 2-3 months time.
THINGS TO TAKE NOTE/DO WHEN YOU RECEIVE ICA CITIZENSHIP APPROVAL IN-PRINCIPLE
Once you received the ICA Citizenship Approval In-Principle via email, you are required to download the Outcome Letter via the link given using your Singpass ID.
1. You will need to start the 3 steps in Singapore Citizenship Journey (SCJ) at https://www.sgjourney.gov.sg/login (login using Singpass ID).
The 3 steps include :
(a) Quiz about Singapore history and culture (e-Journey)
(b) Singapore Experimental Tour ( Before COVID-19, you need to make appointment to go down for tour. This will take more than a month ).
(c) Community Sharing Session
The steps can be completed via online with quiz and videos link given in the portal. You will be given a month to complete the whole steps due to current situation. The portal will show the progress of your journey to remind you how many percentage have you done. The process become shorter and can be down in 2-3 weeks time.
2. Once you are done with the 3 steps, ICA will give you a date to go down for the conversion of citizenship. Therefore, please ensure that you have done your renunciation of Malaysia citizenship beforehand. You are required to produce the Form MY-RN1 along with other necessary documents for the conversion.
3. While you are in the Singapore Citizenship Journey process, you can start to plan to head down to High Commission of Malaysia for the renunciation process. Effective from 27 March 2024 onwards, you will need to make online appointment before heading down.
*Updated April 2023 by one of the reader*
Just did my renunciation a few days ago and here’s some updates to the process:
1. ICA will still give you 6 months (even though it’s no longer COVID period) to complete the final stage.
2. As ICA approval letter is no longer sent by post, you can just print out three copies of the approval letter; MHC will keep 2 copies and you can use the last one for ICA oath-taking. Just the first page will do; the appendixes are not needed.
Note: Do remember to photocopy both sides of your birth cert if there’s some chop at the back of it.
IMPORTANT:If your renunciation appointment date is later than your ICA appointment date, you can login in to ICA website to change your appointment. But please make sure you do not change more than 3 times. They do not accept any changes after that. You will need to email to them officially.
WHAT TO PREPARE FOR RENUNCATION OF MALAYSIA CITIZENSHIP?
Once you emailed to Consular for appointment, they will send you a list of things to prepare for the renunciation just like below.
Please bring the Original & 2 Photocopies for the following documents:
1. LETTER OF APPROVAL from ICA Singapore to produce to Consular at High Commission of Malaysia
2. Three (3) recent passport size photo (White Background)
3. Borang K (Yellow Form)- 2 Sets (Available at the Consular Section of the High Commision)
4. Form (MY-RN1) – (Available at the Consular Section of the High Commision)
5. Malaysian NRIC
6. Singapore Permanent Resident NRIC
7. Borang W (Malaysian Citizenship Certificate)
8. Singapore Citizenship Certificate & Passport (if applicable)
9. Malaysia International Passport
10. Registration Fee S$10.00 (Cash Only)
IMPORTANT: You must produce your Birth Certificate (Surat Beranak). If in the event you lost it, you need to produce Police Report Document and also Letter from Putrajaya before you can proceed. They will not entertain if you have incomplete documents.
THE RENUNCIATION PROCESS AT CONSULAR HIGH COMMISSION OF MALAYSIA
Once your appointment date is set, please follow accordingly. They will provide you the allocated timing to come down for the renunciation. You can come down 30 minutes earlier from your appointment time (my suggestion) because you still need to queue to exchange your visitor pass with alternative identification card (Eg. Driving License or etc). You also need to show them your appointment date letter issued by Consular Officer as a proof before they allow you to enter.
Once you finally enter the building, the Consular section is at the right side. It is not very obvious to begin with because the pillars blocked the view and do not queue together with those who are there to do their passport.
As usual, you need to queue again to show the documents you brought along for the renunciation. There will be an officer sitting at the entrance of the Consular section to check through your documents and provide you the 2 forms to fill up. You will need to fill up both forms (Form (MY-RN1) and Borang K) using their allocated black pen at a corner counter (updated as on Dec 2020, you can use your own black pen ) .
Once done, queue again to show the officer to check through before he allows you to take queue number to submit at the designated counter. This whole process will take you almost 2 hours to complete depending on the human traffic on that day.
Wait patiently for your queue number to be called and submit all the documents. The officer will then ask you to keep the queue number to wait for another round of waiting to make payment for the registration fee. Once it is done, the officer will provide you a slip payment and the collection slip (pink slip) with the date and time to collect your approved FORM MY-RN1. This will usually take 3 working days to settle.
Once the 3 days are up and based on the date given on the slip, go back to Consular of High Commission of Malaysia to collect the Form MY-RN1. The collection usually will be in the afternoon session. Same process need to queue to submit your slip so that the officer will get the forms for you. The officer will call name by name for you to collect the form. This second visit to collect the form only take less than 10minutes excluding the waiting and queue to enter and submit the form. And that’s it! You are half way there.
Direction/Location
Closest bus stop would be the bus stop at Valley Point. It’ll be a 10 min walk from bus stop to embassy.
Closest MRT station would be Great World station; use exit 4 for bus 32 to travel just 2 bus stops.
Alternatively, use Somerset MRT station exit A (bus stop 3) or Orchard MRT station exit 13 for bus 14 or 65. This bus ride took me around 15 min.
The entrance is no longer at the side gate (from what I recalled years back when I did my passport renewal) but it’s now at the security guardhouse. You no longer need to exchange your cards for a pass to enter. Hence, there’s no longer a queue needed under the hot sun.
I arrived at about 9:30am at the Consular section and had to queue up at the Verification counter there for quite a while.
Guy there will first check all your photocopies, before giving you the yellow Borang K and MY-RN1. There’s now NO longer a need to fill in a fake Borang K for practice beforehand.
The given MY-RN1 form will also include a translated Borang K sample, and this translation is also posted on their notice board for all to check.
You can download the MY-RN1 form and fill it before coming; saw that the verification guy accepted someone’s printed copy and she did not need to fill up MY-RN1 again.
If you are using their black pen, do ensure the ink is dried before touching your handwriting, it looked water based to me. Also clean up your thumbs as much as possible after taking thumbprints to avoid ink smudges.
Also, I would use a presentable photo, as that’s going to go onto your Borang K which is going to be your evidence for ex-citizenship.
After filling your forms, you can let the guy check again your form; this will expedite things up at the counter (I saw a lady who had to fill up missing sections on the spot under the eye of the counter lady lol).
Then you can take a queue number to submit documents and after that make exact payment SG$10 in cash.
Collection day is still 3 working days later (e.g. submit on Monday, collect on Thursday).
Timeline-wise, I believe I queued at verification counter till 10am, finished filling up my form around 10:15am (had to be careful with my handwriting after years of not writing anything). Then probably reached my turn to submit documents at 11:00am, and then paid at 11:10am.
A side note, I do notice that the queue at verification counter became practically non-existent from about 10:00am onwards, and people were still accepted at the verification counter just before I left. So not necessary that you must go there early but go later at your own risk as I read a different blog that they can cutoff submissions if there are a too many people for the day.
For collection day, I reached at around 3pm and it only took me less than 10 min in total, including waiting and queuing time.
P/S: You will still need to return to High Commission of Malaysia to collect the Borang K approximately 8 months later. They will email you for more information.
Read about the Borang K collection post here.
THE CONVERSION PROCESS AT ICA SINGAPORE
While waiting for your Form MY-RN1, you can upload your photo on ICA portal and make online payment of S$70.00 for the processing fee. Alternatively, you can still make payment when you are at ICA. Head down to ICA with the necessary documents required.
Here are the documents required with 1 photocopy each :
1. Renunciation Letter from High Comission of Malaysia and the Pay Slips
2. Recent Passport Size Photo (3 photos)
3. ICA Approval Letter (There is a bar code on the letter for you to scan for queue number at the kiosk)
4. Singapore Permanent Resident NRIC
Once you secure the queue number, wait for your turn to submit the documents. Once the documents are in order, officer will give you a temporary slip which is also your identity Singapore NRIC while waiting for the Pink IC to be ready. Then, wait again for the oath-taking session. It will be one-to-one with the officer-in-charge where you need to read the Singapore Oath.
You have been granted Singapore citizenship, as indicated by the slip provided. Your Pink Identity Card and SC Certificate will be issued in six months’ time, and there will be a Citizenship Ceremony to mark this occasion. In the meantime, you can begin the process of applying for your Singapore Passport.
For those who holds a Malaysia driving license, you may wish to convert before your Singapore citizenship for further documentation required from the Traffic Police HQ. Read more on how to convert the driving license from my post here.
Hope this helps and do share your experience. It would be nice to update the information here and share with the rest to avoid unnecessary issues.