What Is Being Compared
The application asks for your personal details and your passport details, and the biodata page you upload shows the same details in print. When your documents are reviewed, one of the three things checked is consistency: whether the name, passport number, date of birth and travel dates agree across the application, the passport and your bookings.
Where they do not agree, a correction or a replacement document is requested, and the application waits for the answer. The processing page describes how that review works; the rest of this guide is about making sure it has nothing to find.
Full Name
Enter the name as it is shown in the passport. The slips here are small and quiet: a letter dropped from the middle of a long name, a doubled letter written once, a spelling you have always used that differs from the one in the passport. Longer or less familiar names deserve a second look for exactly that reason.
The guidance for the arrival card on this site recommends copying a name letter by letter from the machine-readable lines at the bottom of the biodata page instead of typing it from memory. The same habit helps with the eVisa, where the standard is identical: what you enter must match the passport. The name on your flight and accommodation bookings should read the same way.
Passport Number
Read the number from the passport itself, not from an old booking or an earlier form. A number taken from a booking made with a previous passport will not match the passport you present now.
Two kinds of slip are especially easy to make. One is a transposed digit, which looks right at a glance. The other is a character that resembles another, with the letter O and the number 0 as the classic pair. Read the number back one character at a time against the page, not as a block.
Date of Birth and Nationality
Take the date of birth from the biodata page and pay attention to the order of day and month, since a date such as 04/05 can be read two ways. A mismatched date of birth is among the most common reasons for a clarification request.
Nationality needs particular care because a wrong entry is easy to make without noticing, especially where you pick from a list rather than type. Select the nationality of the passport you will travel with. If you hold two nationalities, that means the one on the passport you will present on arrival. The choice also matters beyond the form: eligibility follows passport nationality and the purpose of travel, so the nationality list on the homepage should be read against that same passport.
Nationality is also not the same thing as the country where you live. If those two differ, the guide to applying while living outside your home country explains what changes.
Passport Expiry Details
Where the application asks for the expiry date, enter it exactly as the passport shows it. This website does not publish a minimum passport validity period, so there is no figure to quote here; the standard is simply to use a valid passport and to record its expiry details accurately. Do not rely on a rule of thumb from another source in place of what the application asks.
If You Hold More Than One Passport
Choose the passport you will show on arrival and take everything from that one: name, number, date of birth, nationality, expiry and the biodata copy you upload. The risk with two passports is not the choice itself but mixing them, for instance typing the number from one while uploading the page of the other. A passport copy and a set of typed details that come from different documents will never match.
Where Mismatches Usually Come From
- Typing from memory
- Fine for your own address, risky for a passport number or a long name. The passport is always within reach; use it.
- Reusing an earlier booking or form
- Details copied from a past trip may reflect an old passport or an old spelling. Start from the passport you hold now.
- A list chosen too quickly
- Where a field offers a list to choose from, nationality for one, check the selected entry after you choose it.
- A form completed by someone else
- Whoever fills it in, you are the one who can compare it with the passport. Check the name spelling, passport number and date of birth before it is submitted.
- Two passports, one form
- Details taken from one passport and a copy of the other describe two different documents.
Check in Both Directions Before You Submit
Reading from the form to the passport is a good start. Reading in both directions is more reliable, because the eye tends to see what it expects.
- Start at the passport and read each detail aloud, then find it on the form. Anything you cannot match exactly is a mismatch.
- Start at the form and read each entry, then find it on the passport. This second direction catches the details you did not think to check.
- Open the biodata copy you are uploading and confirm it shows the same details, clearly and in full. The passport photo and scan guide covers what a readable copy looks like.
- Set the booking details beside the form: your name as it appears on the booking and the dates should agree with what you entered.
If You Notice a Mistake
Correct it straight away. A wrong name spelling, passport number, date of birth or nationality should be fixed as soon as it is noticed and, wherever possible, before submission. After submission a correction can only be made in the way Immigration's process allows, which makes the checks above the quickest route.
The Same Details Reappear on the Arrival Card
The Malaysia Digital Arrival Card is a separate step, completed with information rather than uploaded documents, and it asks for the same identity set: full name as shown in the passport, passport number, nationality, date of birth and passport expiry details. If you prepare these once from the passport you will travel with, both forms can be completed from one reliable source; the arrival card overview explains who it applies to.
None of these checks takes long. They only have to happen before you submit, while every correction is still easy.