What Immigration actually means by “Visa With Reference”
Immigration’s own dedicated VDR page gives a general definition spanning several visa categories, not just domestic helper placement: “a visa issued by the Malaysian Representative Office abroad to a non-citizen to enable individuals to enter Malaysia after the visa is approved by the Immigration Department Headquarters.” That general page lists named categories — spouses of Malaysian citizens, and nationality-specific tracks for Afghanistan, India, and a group covering China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba — and none of them is domestic helper placement.
For a foreign domestic helper, the VDR instead runs through the Foreign Domestic Helper page’s own dedicated process, with its own forms and its own document list. It’s worth being clear on this distinction before searching Immigration’s site for VDR information — the general VDR page and the FDH-specific process sit under the same department but aren’t the same application.
Who issues it, and what the application actually needs
The Malaysian representative office abroad — her country’s Malaysian embassy or consulate — issues the visa itself, subject to approval by Immigration Department Headquarters in Malaysia. It’s one government department running the whole chain, with the embassy network acting on Immigration’s behalf rather than as a separate authority.
The FDH-specific application bundle runs to over a dozen items: the new-application or replacement form (PRA1/PRA2), Form IM 12 for the PLKS application itself, Form IM 38 for the visa, a Personal Bond stamped with a revenue stamp (the amount set by her country of origin), an Employment Agreement, her passport copy, a certified medical report from her home country, and — for a non-Muslim employer hiring a Muslim FDH — an additional declaration form, alongside income and marital documents required regardless of religion. The full document checklist and the Personal Bond’s country-by-country amounts sit in the dedicated guide on the overall permit sequence.
What happens once it’s approved
Getting the VDR approved isn’t the end of the process — it’s the first of several stages. After approval, she enters Malaysia through any permitted entrance and is issued a 30-day Special Pass, followed by the medical exam and then the PL(KS)/VP(TE) pass itself once she’s certified healthy. Each of those later stages, and the pass she ends up holding, has its own dedicated guide.
This whole sequence, including the VDR stage, is confirmed for Peninsular Malaysia. Sabah runs an entirely separate system through eNORES, and Sarawak issues its own eVDR through the HAVEN process — neither follows the same forms or the same department chain described here, so check the dedicated state guides rather than assuming this VDR process applies there.