Travellers in Malaysia planning trips to Italy face a last-minute scramble after the Embassy of Italy in Kuala Lumpur announced on 4 February that its visa section will not offer any appointment slots from 9 to 18 February. The blackout period coincides with the national VIS-IT maintenance window but also overlaps Malaysia’s peak outbound travel around Chinese New Year, amplifying the impact on tour groups, incentive trips and oil-and-gas crew changes sourced out of Kuala Lumpur.
The embassy says all applicants already booked during the affected dates will be moved to the first available slots after 19 February, with priority given to medical and other humanitarian cases. New appointments on the Prenot@Mi portal are temporarily locked, and walk-in or VIP submissions via VFS Global will not be accepted. Collection of supplementary documents for files already under review remains possible.
![Kuala Lumpur embassy halts Italian visa appointments 9–18 February]()
Corporate mobility teams routing staff to Milan Fashion Week or equipment engineers to Italy’s northern industrial hubs are advised to consider filing at another Schengen mission in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, bearing in mind that biometric data captured for one Schengen state cannot be re-used for another. Where travel is time-critical, switching to a multiple-entry visa previously issued by a different Schengen country may be permissible provided Italy is not the main destination.
Applicants whose trips fall soon after the suspension should ensure invitation letters, insurance policies and proof-of-employment remain valid if dates shift. Air-ticket change penalties and hotel rate fluctuations around the holiday period could add hundreds of euros to project budgets, so proactive rescheduling is urged. The embassy recommends monitoring its website daily for any earlier restoration of service if the VIS upgrade finishes ahead of schedule.
The embassy says all applicants already booked during the affected dates will be moved to the first available slots after 19 February, with priority given to medical and other humanitarian cases. New appointments on the Prenot@Mi portal are temporarily locked, and walk-in or VIP submissions via VFS Global will not be accepted. Collection of supplementary documents for files already under review remains possible.
Corporate mobility teams routing staff to Milan Fashion Week or equipment engineers to Italy’s northern industrial hubs are advised to consider filing at another Schengen mission in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, bearing in mind that biometric data captured for one Schengen state cannot be re-used for another. Where travel is time-critical, switching to a multiple-entry visa previously issued by a different Schengen country may be permissible provided Italy is not the main destination.
Applicants whose trips fall soon after the suspension should ensure invitation letters, insurance policies and proof-of-employment remain valid if dates shift. Air-ticket change penalties and hotel rate fluctuations around the holiday period could add hundreds of euros to project budgets, so proactive rescheduling is urged. The embassy recommends monitoring its website daily for any earlier restoration of service if the VIS upgrade finishes ahead of schedule.
Source: Embassy of Italy in Kuala Lumpur
