Moving to Malaysia from the US

US passport holders can visit Malaysia visa-free, but living there takes a residence permit. The self-funded residency routes we track start at an investment of about $126k, and our residency index rates Malaysia 70/100 for US citizens (comparatively open). We estimate €2,246 a month for a couple living centrally in George Town and €2,468 in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia is in our low to medium tax tier. Check the official requirements before you apply.

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Short stays
Visa-free
US passport
Residency
70/100
Comparatively open, our index
Tax tier
Low to medium
Moderate personal income tax
Est. cost for two
From €2,246/mo
George Town, our estimate

Living there long term

Our residency index: 70/100, comparatively open. It is our own rating of how realistic long-term residency in Malaysia is for US citizens, based on the routes Malaysia publishes. Long-term residency is realistic mainly through the capital-based Malaysia My Second Home program (federal Silver/Gold/Platinum tiers, the cheaper Forest City Special Economic Zone variant, and Sarawak's own S-MM2H) or the Premium Visa Programme, all of which grant long renewable passes to applicants who can place a substantial fixed deposit, while skilled professionals otherwise need an employer-sponsored Employment Pass.

The cheapest self-funded routes we track:

  • Investment: about $126k (Sarawak MM2H (S-MM2H) mandatory fixed deposit, RM500,000, the lowest total-capital investor route since it requires no property purchase, unlike the federal MM2H tiers and the Forest City SEZ route; converted at 1 USD = 3.965 MYR; as of June 2026)

Check the official requirements before you apply: amounts, conditions and exchange rates change, and what a couple needs can differ from a single applicant's threshold.

For short visits, US passport holders can visit visa-free, according to the passport-index dataset. Short-stay entry covers visits; living there takes a residence permit.

Source: OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed approximations researched against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. Not legal advice: check the official source before you apply. Short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT).

Where in Malaysia to start

Ranked by our match model for a typical couple who both hold US passports, using the preset answers of our best places to live list. Your own answers would change the order. We pick the cities, up to five, by how often English Wikipedia readers looked them up over the past year.

  1. 1. Kuching

    64% match
    Est. cost
    €2,323/mo
    Avg temp
    26°C
    Safety index
    60/100

  2. 2. Johor Bahru

    64% match
    Est. cost
    €2,386/mo
    Avg temp
    27°C
    Safety index
    60/100

  3. 3. Kuala Lumpur

    64% match
    Est. cost
    €2,468/mo
    Avg temp
    27°C
    Safety index
    60/100

  4. 4. Malacca

    63% match
    Est. cost
    €2,353/mo
    Avg temp
    27°C
    Safety index
    60/100

  5. 5. George Town

    61% match
    Est. cost
    €2,246/mo
    Avg temp
    27°C
    Safety index
    60/100

Cost of living for two

Our estimate for a couple living centrally runs from €2,246 a month in George Town to €2,468 in Kuala Lumpur. For comparison, we estimate €4,640 a month in New York City. Use these figures to compare places rather than to set a budget.

Source: our cost model: a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026). An estimate, not a survey of current prices.

Taxes

Malaysia is in our low to medium tax tier (moderate personal income tax); the US is in our low to medium tax tier (moderate personal income tax). Tiers describe each country's own income tax. They do not cover tax you may still owe in the US after you leave, or the treaty between the two countries, so check both with a tax adviser before you move.

Source: OurNextCity tax tiers, assigned by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation, with no fixed rate cut-offs. Coarse by design; not tax advice.

Compare cities in Malaysia

Lists with cities in Malaysia

Moving to Malaysia from elsewhere

Every country and origin we cover

How we built this page

Every figure here comes from the datasets behind our city and country pages:

  • Short-stay entry: the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT license), which records the entry rule for short visits on each passport.
  • Residency index, routes and thresholds: the OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. It is a summary, not legal advice.
  • City ranking: our match model, the one behind the quiz, run with a typical couple's preset answers and both partners holding US passports. It ranks up to five of the country's best-known cities: of the cities in our quiz (100,000 people or more, capitals and a few towns movers seek out, such as Faro), the five most read about on English Wikipedia over the past year. It folds suburbs into their main city and leaves out countries with a residency index under 40 and areas under a US State Department Level 4 advisory, as our best-cities lists do.
  • Costs: our cost model, a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026).
  • Tax tiers: three coarse bands we assign by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation.