Dampak Pandemi Covid-19 Terhadap Pelayanan Visa Kerja Oleh Imigrasi Malaysia Untuk Bekerja Di Malaysia

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 Pandemic has affected all sectors of life both in Indonesia and internationally. For example, the Indonesia-Malaysia cooperation agreement on Worker Immigration is facing a serious issue due to visa restrictions because of COVID-19. Without a proper work visa, the arrival of a migrant worker is illegal. In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the governor of Riau province implemented Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) policy to prevent infections and break the chain of virus transmission. Methodologically, this research is a study on sociology law based on an empirical literature approach. The study is conducted by exploring the data, including documents in the related topic, and by observing the visa application process at the Consulate of Malaysia in Pekanbaru. This research aims to find out the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on work visa services in the said institution. The findings show that the work visa services of Indonesian worker migrants to Malaysia in that Riau Province‟s seat has got several procedural changes. These changes are caused by the Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) implemented by the local government. Concerning the restrictions, the visa approval is applied online through an official application issued by the Consulate of Malaysia named Visa Elektronik. This is an impact of the Pandemic on the visa approval process for Indonesian worker migrants to Malaysia in terms of the administration service mobility in the office after the restrictions policy implemented. Besides, the Malaysian government‟s decision to lift a limit on hiring Indonesian migrant workers during the Pandemic has significantly increased Indonesian unemployment rate. Furthermore, this also has decreased national income from the migrant workers visa sector