Archive for April, 2010
I had read about people going as early as 4am to 5am to queue up! I certainly wasn’t going to do that. Besides, we had to send our kids to school.
So, one morning after sending the kids to school, my husband, my maid and I went to the Indonesian Embassy at 9am in the morning. We brought the maid’s old passport and nothing else. We parked at the carpark right beside it. As we were walking towards the Embassy gates, some touts called out to us shouting out something about photostating documents. We ignored them and walked straight on.
When we arrived at the gates, there was a man at the gate telling us to go towards a queue station to collect forms and do photostating. You can do photostating for free in the Indonesian Embassy. We headed towards the queue station. There was a man seated at a desk at the start of the queue station. There was no queue. We showed him the passport and he handed us a form and 3 duplicate copies of a pre-printed contract of employment between maid and employer.
The form was very simple to complete. Just one page. The only thing you probably have to remember is your maid’s address and contact person back home. Make sure your maid knows this beforehand. I remember my sister’s young Cambodian maid who did not even know her home address. She was homesick and the agent offered to contact her family but she was not able to give them a contact number.
The contract of employment is to be filled out in triplicate. One copy for the Embassy, one for the maid and one for the employer. You have to fill out the number of years you wish the contract to be, the salary (minimum salary for renewal is RM600), the Embassy announced this in the loudspeaker, as well as the place of exit, ie your responsiblity in terms of paying for the maids fare to and fro. You should have a rough idea about all this before you go so that it is easier for you to write this information down in the preprinted contract.
After we completed the form and contract we went to the end of the queue station (though there was no queue) and showed the form, contract and passport to the man seated there. He gave us a number and allowed us to enter. It is a good idea to photostat your documents after you take the number. The photostat station is located on the right or you can ask the man who gives out the numbers.
Before entering the waiting area, we had to walk through a room to have the maid’s photograph taken. Then we are allowed to enter the waiting area. We were there at 9.45am. Our number (2078) was called at 11.15am to surrender the documents at the counter. We did not realise that we had to photostat the documents before that but we were allowed to leave the room to the photostat station which is outside and not very far from the waiting room to get the documents photostated for free.
After that we had to wait to make payment. We were called to make payment at 12.30pm. When making payment, usually the maid has to go to the counter as the counter person will interview the maid. They will ask for her address and contact person back home to verify her indentity. Then they will enquire whether she is happy working and how much is her renewal salary. Remember, the minimum is RM600.
After making the payment, I asked the man manning the counter how long it will take for the passport to be ready. It was 12.20pm at the time. His reply was “After lunch. You can go and have your lunch and go shopping if you like and come back at 3pm to collect the passport”
I would say that everything is quite smooth flowing so far. Accept that you have to be prepared to wait it out. If you trust your maid to be around lots of long haired hippy looking males, you may even leave her there to wait. 
We went to pick up the kids from school, have lunch and then hubby sent us there at about 2.30pm. Hubby was supposed to leave us there and go run another errant. However, I saw that the numbers 2071 to 2074 was called in rapid succession. My number was 2078. So I called hubby to turn back.
Unfortunately, the number did not move from there and an hour later, they were still calling 2075. Then the numbers became erractic. 2095, 2103, 2080 etc. till almost every number near and above mine were called except my 2078. 
I went to the counter twice to ask why my number was not called even though those ahead of mine had been called just to make sure that I had not missed my number but they said it was like that and told me to wait.
Finally, my number was called at 4.00pm. The counter man interviewed the maid again shortly, almost the same questions ie how long she has been working etc. Then he looked at me and asked “Is this your signature?” pointing to the employer’s signature on the employment contract. I explained that it was my husband’s who was there in the morning and he said “you should start paying her the new salary from next month.” I told him that we will start paying her the new salary immediately after her current 2 year contract with us expires in 3 months time. He looked at the maid and asked her whether that was ok with her and when she said yes, he released the passport to us together with a copy of the employment contract for her and for me. The new passport starts from the date of application even though the old passport expires much later.
9am to 4pm. That is all the time it took us. The only documents you require is your maid’s current passport. Not too difficult but very time consumming. Oh I forgot to mention. I paid RM10 for parking and RM18 for the passport. The agent was going to charge us RM350 for this service.
The other day my cooker hood gave way. The man came and replaced the circuit board. It took him less than 5 minutes to remove the wires from the old circuit board and put in the wires of the new circuit board. It was very expensive. I had to bargain with him to remove transportation and labor charges for that service.
I had a good look at my kitchen then. I wish I could remodel my kitchen. I would love to have a built in oven for example and lots and lots more work space, an island, a bar like this Kitchen Makeover idea from Kitchen Renovation Calgary.
The problem is the previous owners of my house probably did very little cooking. They renovated my kitchen space to make it smaller to make space for a bigger dining hall which I don’t need. I prefer it the other way around.
If you are keen or enjoy doing renovations, you should read up all about home renovations. I always do, before getting ready for any renovation jobs. It gives me ideas for my home improvements and it helps me select and bargain with Calgary Contractors.
I don’t like to go to a hair salon. My tolerance level at a hair salon is probably for about 30 minutes only. Beyond that, my mind would race about all the things I have to do and should be doing and will probably be doing if I were not there stuck in a chair with my hair wet. I hate all sorts of hair treatment, perming, colouring, straightening, whatever.
The only thing I enjoy is a hairwash. Ahh… bliss… It is very nice to sit back and have your head massage and to feel warm water flowing down your tresses without getting all wet…. although you do sometimes get wet and the head massage is a tad too hard and the water is either too cold or too hot.
Apart from a hairwash, I hate everything else, the waiting especially, the small talk and chatter…. though a haircut may sometimes make my head feel lighter afterwards.
What I hate the most is the fact that most of the time I will be asked whether I would like to buy this shampoo or that conditioner, whether I would like to have a facial, etc.
The most “unsual” request I’ve had is whether I would like to buy some pearls and during CNY it was whether I would like to buy some Chinese New Year cookies! That was the last straw. I haven’t visited the hair salon since then. I’m afraid I am too busy for hair salons.
My maid’s work permit was for a 2 year contract when we first took her in. It has to be renewed on a yearly basis thereafter. Her passport is for 3 years. However, if we were to renew her work permit for another year, her passport would expire before the 3rd year is up. Therefore, we have to renew her passport as well.
I was very blur about the procedure for renewing maid’s work permit and passport as I had not done it before. So I made a few calls ie to the Agent, Fomema (where you go for health screening for foreign workers) as well as the Imigration.
I will write the process for renewing maid’s work permit and passport here for my own benefit so that I will remember it later on. Perhaps it will help some others too and that is a good thing and perhaps some would like to share their experience too and that is an even better thing. 
So here goes. As far as I know, here are the following steps if the agent were to handle the maid’s passport and work permit renewal.
- Bring the maid to the agent to stay overnight at the agent’s for renewing passport. The agent will then arrange for the maid to go to the Indonesian Embassy and queue up very early in the morning to get the passport renewal done. (This is required by my agent, others may differ) Charges: RM350
- Once the passport has been renewed, the agent will do the registration with Fomema for health screening to be done. Agent will then call us up to bring the maid to a clinic near the agent’s for a blood and urine checkup as well as an X-Ray.
- Once the medical is approved, the agent will get the work permit done at the Imigration Department and call us up to collect the passport with the extended work permit. Charges: RM895
Note: Total Charges if done by agent = RM350 + RM895 + RM97 (for insurance) = RM1342. Work permit is renewed for 1 year. Passport is renewed for 3 years.
Below is the process if we were to handle the maid’s passport and work permit renewal ourselves.
- Bring maid to Indonesian Embassy to renew passport. Documents required = Old Passport. Cost=RM20 (Please note that this is the approximate cost as given to me by the agent. I do not know the actual cost as I have not done the renewal). The agent also informed me that no photos are required these days as all will be done at the Embassy.
- Go to Fomema to register maid for health screening. Make payment and select a Fomema approved clinic. Fomema will provide you with 4 forms yellow, white, green and pink. Bring the yellow form to the allocated X-Ray facility for the clinic of your choice to do X-Ray. Bring remainder 3 colour forms to the Fomema approved clinic you selected to do blood and urine tests. Some doctors have X-Ray facilities too so you may want to select those to save on running around time. Cost:RM190
- Once, the maid has passed the medical, you may then go to Imigration office to apply for work permit extension. I am not sure of the documents required. Cost:445
Note: Total cost for extending your maid’s passport and work permit yourself is RM20 + RM190 + RM445 = RM655.
The agent informed me that the maid will be interviewed by the Embassy to ensure that her minimum pay for extension is RM600.
Fomema Health Screening is required for extension of work permit up to from 2nd year going to 3rd year only. For extension of work permit from 3rd year going to 4th year onwards, it is no longer required. So a trip to Imigration may be all that is required subsequently.
Imigration accepts cash or bank draft as payment. I am not sure of Fomema. It is stated on the website as bank draft, money order or postal order.
Please take note that the cost and charges involved are as quoted to me by the relevant agencies at the time of writing and may change. Different agents may do it differently and charge differently as well. This is just to give you a rough idea of the cost and processes involved. As I have mentioned, I have not gone through the process yet so the cost and documents required may not be entirely accurate. If you wish to do the renewal process yourself, do check up with the relevant agencies on the documents you require so that you get it right the first time.
Links to agencies:
- Fomema Registration Procedures
- Imigration Department of Malaysia’s Official Website
- Embassy of the Rebulic of Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur
Below are links to articles and blog posts which I found useful (Please note that some articles are dated from as way back as 2006 so the information may be still useful but outdated.
Links to newspaper articles:
Links to blog posts:
- Maid Permit Renewal
- Maid’s Passport Collection turned nightmare
- How to renew work permit for your Indonesian Maid
Links to Forums:
The time has flown. It is almost 2 years now since we got our first maid. I remember my apprehension about bringing a stranger into my home with so many maid horror stories I heard.
However, we are happy with our maid’s work so far and I hope……, she is happy with us.
Recently, I spoke to her about extending her work permit.
“You have worked for us for almost 2 years now. Would you like to continue?”
I was really happy when she looked a bit embarrassed and said …
“M’aam, I have been wanting to ask you this question for months now but I was too shy to ask. I wanted to ask you whether you would allow me to continue working with you.”
We had a talk about her working conditions, whether she was bored or had any unhappiness she wanted to bring up. She said there was none. She said she was happy, that she had enough to eat, enough time for rest and she was happy that we took her out with us to the movies etc. She said she was happy to have found good employers and she does not want to risk going back and starting over with new employers.
I told her that we are also happy to have found a good maid. Hopefully, we can continue our win win situation.
Today …. marks 3 years from that day my body played an April Fool’s Joke on me and gave me 3 seizures in a day.
I can look at it in 2 ways…
- I can be unhappy about it when I look back and reflect or
- I can be thankful that everything is under control now
I choose no. 2.
Today….. dad has another awakening. “Awakening” means we get the old dad back for a day or two. The old dad that dementia took away from us. The last time he had an awakening was on March 13. On that day, he took out his angpow packets and started packing all the angpows for all the birthdays that is coming up soon for any of his children or grandchildren so that he won’t forget. On that day, he “woke up” and said “Chinese New Year is over and I didn’t know it. I better pack all the angpows ready before I forget.”
He gave me the advanced angpow for my son’s birthday in April. Upon seeing this, my daughter quickly took out a piece of paper and wrote in Chinese… “Kong Kong, my birthday is on 21st May.” Then she slipped the note to kong kong.
Today, dad, remembers that day clearly as though it was yesterday. For him, it probably was ‘yesterday’. The rest of the days pass by in a blur to him. He tells me, “tell your daughter, I will remember her birthday. I know she was trying to get an advanced angpow from me too but unfortunately I did not have enough cash that day. I will definitely come for her birthday.”
Sadly, when that day comes, he may not remember it if it is not an awakening day. That is the way dad is. We get to see snippets of his old self about once or twice a month. On these days he will be so full of life, active and talkative, as if wanting to make up for all the lost time in between. He would not be able to sleep at night. Sometimes he calls up in the wee hours of the morning to chat. And after that he will be so tired, he will sleep for 2 days, only getting up for meals which he picks on without appetite and medication before falling back to sleep or not getting up for meals at all.
I can look at it 2 ways….
- Sad at having lost dad to dementia or
- Happy that he is otherwise in good health and we still get to see him the way he is before dementia every once in a while
I choose no. 2
