Alone among Malaysia's states, Sarawak maintains an autonomy on immigration control, mostly so mainlanders cannot freely immigrate and swamp the thinly populated state. Even if coming in from elsewhere in Malaysia, Malaysians need to bring along their ID and are restricted to a stay of 90 days at a time. Other foreigners need to fill out a second immigration form.
Still, for most travellers this is just a formality and an interesting extra stamp in their passport, as anybody who does not need a visa for Malaysia can get a free 90-day visit permit on arrival. If you do need an advance visa for Malaysia, you'll need one specifically for Sarawak, so be sure to state this when applying at the Malaysian embassy.
By plane
Most visitors arrive in Sarawak by plane. The largest gateway is Kuching the state capital, which is about 1.5 hours away from Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu. There are also a few direct international flights from Indonesia Pontianak, Bali and Jakarta, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei and Macau as well as Singapore flying in twice or thrice weekly. China's Xiamen Airlines offers direct connections from Xiamen.
Other airports with domestic connections to Peninsula Malaysia on both Malaysian Airlines and Air Asia include Miri, Sibu and Bintulu. MASWings serves flights between cities and rural areas in East Malaysia, including Sarawak and Sabah. AirAsia also operates an international flight from Miri to Singapore four times a week.
By road
Sarawak has land borders with Brunei, Indonesia and the Malaysian state of Sabah.
Brunei
There are several land crossings between Sarawak and Brunei. They are at Sungei Tujuh on the road between Miri and Bandar Seri Begawan, Tedungan (on the road between Limbang and Bandar Seri Begawan, Pandaruan a ferry crossing on the route between Limbang and Brunei's Temburong district and Labu along the route from Temburong district to Lawas.
Indonesia
The main crossing between Sarawak and Indonesia is the Tebedu-Entikong checkpoint which lies along the Kuching-Pontianak road. There are many other crossings between the two countries although the legality of these crossings are questionable and are mostly used by locals living in those areas. It is also possible to legally cross the border in the Kelabit Highlands between Bario and Long Bawan. See the Kelabit Highlands page for details.
Sabah
As Sarawak controls its own immigration matters, there are checkpoints at border between Sarawak and Sabah at Merapok Sindumin on the Sabah side near Lawas.
By bus
There are direct international buses from Pontianak, Indonesia to Kuching, a direct express bus service between Lawas in northeastern Sarawak and Kota Kinabalu, Sabah as well as bus connections between Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei and Miri.