My name is Dr John and I am a UK citizen - I do not need to bother your readers with surnames.

I came to Malaysia in 1999 and after setting up an IT company and shipping well over a million ringgit in foreign currency into Malaysia, I applied for a Malaysian permanent resident status. I was then subjected to multitudinous hours of ‘Get a ticket’ - ‘Queue there’ and ‘Sorry, come back tomorrow’ nonsense.

Ten years down the road, having forked out many, many thousands of ringgit to maintain my visa status, I eventually gave up and moved to the Philippines.

After three months here, I applied for a permanent residence. The Philippines Bureau of Immigration is a humble building in Cebu - no fancy ground-glass doors or any of that nonsense, but I was treated with the utmost civility.

I was given a couple of forms to complete and told at which desk to submit them. Ten minutes later I was called by name - not number - and instructed to go to the window to pay - RM180!

I was then told that I needed to wait for a hearing with the head attorney who would contact me. He did. ‘When would it be convenient, Dr John?’ I told him that because I was on an island many hours travel (including a ferry ride) from Cebu that it would have to be an afternoon. so the appointment was made for yesterday afternoon.

When I arrived at the Immigration Bureau, although there were about 50 people sitting there, I was welcomed (again no number nonsense) and immediately ushered into the office for the hearing.

That lasted over an hour, with the attorney erasing out the bits of the form I had completed incorrectly and re-writing it as it should have been, at no extra charge!

He then typed and signed an approval letter to send to Manila to give me my PR status, and told me he would telephone me when it comes through in a few weeks.

Is it not time the whole of the arrogant and ignorant Malaysian immigration staff got onto the national carrier and go to Cebu (flights via Kota Kinabalu to Cebu City) and learn how to run an immigration department properly so as not to upset potential investors in their country?