Translation of documents

Where does one get professional translation service in Malaysia?

I had to get some documents translated including our marriage certificate and our children's birth certificates. These are required for the visa application. After some inquiries, an excellent solution presented it self in the form of "Institut Terjemahan Negara Malaysia (ITNM)".

After placing a call to them, I was informed that they provide translation services for various languages. Turnaround time is 3 working days (but in actual fact it is less than 48 hours as I submitted on Wednesday afternoon at around 2pm and the translations are ready for collection after 10am on Friday).

The charges are RM80 per page for marriage certificate and RM50 for birth certificate. The translation are delivered on high quality paper in 2 copies for each document. No complain and overall very happy.

BTW, you can actually get English translation of birth certificate from "Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN)". From what I was informed of when I called them, it seems that they can simply print out a copy in dual-language HOWEVER.....apart from a very long form that you have to fill-up, it is also dependent on whether the officer who signs the document is around.

I actually went to JPN Wangsa Maju initially but was informed that I couldn't get it on Wed afternoon because the officer is in a meeting. Upon asking, I was also informed that they are also unsure if I can get it on Thursday as they are unsure whether the officer will be around. A very busy officer s/he must be. I couldn't believe it. Hundreds of people taking their time off going to JPN for official business may end up not getting anything done depending on whether the person who needs to sign the documents is around. Shouldn't it be a service level requirement that the person is available whenever the counter is open????? In any case, it will only cost one RM5 for the copy from JPN.

Mover....and my car

Finally, the mover visited our home today to conduct a 'survey'. Basically preparing an inventory of all the things we are bringing over. Have to say that the lady is very professional. She was in front of our gate at exactly 3.30pm, as promised.

The whole survey involved her taking a tour of our place with a notepad jotting down items, dimensions and quantity of things we are planning to ship and airfreight (there's entitlement for both).

That's the good news.

I thought I had found a buyer for my car below. He seems to be very interested and had even approached the bank for loan. Suddenly I received a text message late in the evening asking for further discount. When I asked for his offer price, he seems to hesitate and finally said he need to consult his other half. Let's see......

Visa appointment postponed

Unfortunately, the letter from my employer did not reach KL after 6 days being DHL'ed from Europe. To make matter worse, nobody can tell me the tracking number of the 'package'. This is a key document forming my visa application as it lists down the confirmation of my future employment, my salary and benefits and all other arrangements that proves that I will not end up being a burden to the taxpayers there.

I do have a pdf copy of the document emailed to me last week but after consulting some experienced people, I decided not to take the risk as the instructions clearly stated that original documents must be submitted.

So I asked myself, "Got Patience?"

Let's see how long it will be. They've resent another copy of the letter and if DHL delivers, then I should be okay. Appointment rescheduled to 1st April (for now!)

Work Permit and Visa

As someone who is going to the UK to work for the same company (Intra-Company transfer), there's a requirement for Certificate of Sponsorship (what used to be the Work Permit) and Visa. The company helps with the CoS based on a form that I filled up basically listing my profile (education, experience etc). That was quick.

From there, we need to get our own visas (for me and the family). That is going to be an adventure. For Malaysians, visa is processed by a 3rd party VFS (http://www.vfs-uk-my.com/) and the application can be made online. The access speed to make an online application is painfully slow though.

To help manage the number of people going to their office for visa application, one can set appointment on the web. We set ours for 24th March 2009 at 0915 in the morning. Hopefully, our visas will be ready by mid April latest.

Oh my.....this is painful

With the move to London progressing well, we've decided to put our car on the market. Visited my cousin last night and he said he has just bought a brand new Honda Accord 2 weeks ago....same as ours...diffierent colour though. But nothing much to regret as I did not want to 'broadcast' our move to London until it's firmed up and 2-3 weeks ago would have been pre-matured.

Anyhow, he suggested that I place an ad on mudah.com.my and I would have to recommend it having tried it. It's free and quite effective (I got 3 inquiries within 24 hours of advertising it).

Hopefully, we'll get to sell our cars. (BTW, the photo is taken in front of our house. That is something that we have not decided on - to rent or what? That's for another posting...sometimes later)

My sweetheart's new hobby.....

.........is browsing property websites for London (and I have to admit that I am excited about it too). Since the possibility of us moving to London came up a couple of months back, that has been her favourite past-time activity.

A few useful website we've found are;

• http://www.livinginlondon.net/ (the 1st page with the postcodes is excellent for researching the areas in London.
• http://www.foxtons.co.uk/ (the best property website for London, in our humble opinion....as users; and that counts a lot right!!!)
• http://www.findaproperty.co.uk/ (another property website we find useful)

We still haven't decided on where to live. But it's quite useful and interesting to be able to find out about the various areas and the sort of properties available for rent. We will be spending a lot of time in arriving at a decision here....

London, here we come!

The whole family is relocating to London. MSH and I are having mixed feelings; being in KL for the last 4 years has been great, especially for the kids. Adni's been great for them and BA and LO, despite the infamous landslide, is still home...and a great one. The kids are really excited about it. When asked, it's because....they'll get to play with snow.... I still marvel at how kids think.

A lot of researches needs to be done; we need to sort out work permit, visas, flights, movers, housing there, schools etc.....

Will update.