Visa requirements for Malaysian citizens

Malaysian citizens can enter all 29 Schengen states without a visa, for up to 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole area.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Malaysia and 149 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

18 countries ask holders of the Malaysian passport for a visa beforehand, although their own citizens enter Malaysia without one: Armenia, Bolivia, Canada, Chad, Gabon and 13 others.

The reverse holds for 11 countries: holders of the Malaysian passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Malaysia (Bangladesh, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau and 6 others).

15 countries ask holders of the Malaysian passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 3 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Malaysia.

12 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Malaysia, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Malaysia, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Indonesia (2).

The United States refused 7.9% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Malaysia in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 21 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 175 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the Malaysian passport

By continent, the Malaysian passport is visa-free in 42 countries in Europe, 28 countries in the Americas, 26 countries in Asia, 21 countries in Africa and 5 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Malaysian citizens are allowed in Georgia (360 days), Antigua and Barbuda (180 days), Barbados (180 days), Dominica (180 days), Mexico (180 days) and Peru (180 days).

Visa on arrival

Malaysian citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cape Verde, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and 25 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Malaysian citizens enter Armenia, Bhutan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Colombia and 16 others. Australia, Ivory Coast, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, South Korea and the United Kingdom ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Malaysia’s neighbours

Brunei, Thailand and Indonesia admit Malaysian citizens without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Bruneian passport ranks 51st (140 destinations), the Thai passport ranks 111th (80 destinations) and the Indonesian passport ranks 113th (78 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 167 can enter visa-free, 28 need an e-Visa, 2 need a visa from an embassy or consulate and 1 is not admitted for Malaysia.