Archive for the 'Maid' Category

This final step of renewing your maid’s work permit at the Immigration is almost too simple to blog about.

This is the Immigration Department of Malaysia’s Official Website.

Where?

The headquarters of the Department of Immigration, Malaysia (Ministry of Home Affairs) is in Putrajaya. You can renew  your maid’s work permit at any State Immigration Office. We did ours at the Wilayah Persekutuan of KL State Immigration Office at this address:

Jabatan Imigresen Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
Aras 3, Blok I
Pusat Bandar Damansara
50550 Kuala Lumpur

Telefon: 20905632

How much?

The levy is RM445 to extend the maid’s work permit for a period of one (1) year.

Take note that as of time of writing, if you are renewing your maid’s work permit in Putrajaya, you will need to pay by bank draft, postal order or money order payable to Ketua Pengarah Imigresen Malaysia, if I am not mistaken. (You should always check the payee name by calling up the Imigration Department). However, the state Immigration Department of Wilayah Persekutuan KL accepts cash so I paid in cash. It’s easier for me. I don’t know about other states.

What to bring?

You will have to bring along with you, your maid’s new passport (if you have one), bring along your your maid’s old passport too together with the levy amount.

After checking that our maid  has passed her medical screening tests online at FOMEMA, we headed to the Immigration office. All it took was 15 minutes on a weekday morning, first thing in the morning and we’re done.

Next, a summary of all the steps required to renew your maid’s work permit yourself.

I did not blog at all during the school holidays so this part of my post has been delayed even though I have completed the whole process and renewed my maid’s work permit for another year.

This post is continued from the post Renewing Maid’s Work Permit – Step 1 FOMEMA

This step is really easy. After you have registered your maid for the mandatory health screening at FOMEMA, the next thing you have to do is take your maid to the clinic for a health screening.  There is nothing to this. It is just taking your maid to the clinic you have selected on the FOMEMA form for a medical check-up.

Previously, even though we paid our agent to handle the work permit renewal process, they still required us to do this ourselves. So there is no difference. Or shall I say, there is a big difference. We saved a lot of money doing it ourselves.

Do note that we selected a clinic with an X-Ray facility so that we did not have to do twice the work of running around. Everything can be done at one place.  You cannot select the X-ray center as each clinic has a preassgined X-ray center but you can certainly choose a clinic with X-ray facilities.

We merely gave the clinic the forms given to us by FOMEMA, and they did the rest. No payment is required here since we have paid for this when we registered at FOMEMA. It took us less than an hour to finish the blood and urine tests and X-ray. It could have been less if the clinic had less people but we went on a weekend morning. You can go during a weekday morning to save time.

Finally, 10 working days after the doctor examination, we were able to check our maid’s health status at FOMEMA-Result Online.

Next: Renewing Maids Permit Final Step: Immigration.

Now that I have renewed my maid’s passport, the next step would be to renew her work permit for a period of one year. Maids who are seeking renewed employment from year 2 going on to year 3 still requires mandatory health screening by Fomema. Subsequently, if your maid continues to work for you from years 3 going to year 4 onwards, it is not mandatory.

My agent has asked me to pass my maid’s old and new passport to them to renew the work permit. They will charge me RM895 for this service. However, I have decided to do it on my own to save more $$$$…. about RM260 actually. I had saved about RM332 by doing the passport renewal myself. I also did not take up the insurance RM97 for one year that is offered by the agent though I do not consider that as savings since it is an insurance after all.

If I ask my agent to renew my maid’s work permit, this will be the process.

1. Hand old and new passport to agent
2. Agent calls me to bring maid to clinic for medical check-up and to x-ray facility to do x-ray (Note: this part still has to be handled by me)
3. Agent calls me to collect the passport and work permit
4. Cost = RM895

By doing it myself, this is what I have to do…

1. Register my maid with Fomema to do health screening
2. Bring maid to clinic for medical check-up and x-ray facility to do x-ray
3. Go to immigration department to do work permit
4. Cost = RM190 (to Fomema to register for health screening) + RM445 (to Immigration dept for work permit for one year) = RM635 in total

First Step: Register maid at Fomema to do mandatory health screening.

1. I go online to the Fomema website to download the foreign worker registration form
2. I go to the post office to buy a postal order. Please take note that Fomema does not accept cheques, not even cash. You are required to pay by postal order, money order or bank draft ONLY.
3. I photostat the first page of my maid’s new passport
4. I fill up all the information on the form accept the doctor of my choice. However, I take down the doctor codes for the clinic I have selected. I select 2 or 3 and take down their codes just in case. I try to make sure that the clinic doing the tests also has an x-ray facility so I don’t have to run around twice to two separate places.
5. My husband goes to the Fomema office during his lunch hour with the completed form, the postal order for RM190 and the original passport (for verification) and photocopy of first page of the passport. He asks if the clinic we selected is available (some have met the quota so they are no longer available at the time). He fills in the doctor codes and details for the clinic we selected that is confirmed available.
6. Waiting time during lunch hour on a weekday was 15 minutes. Voila! We’re done.
7. Fomema gives us a set of forms to be given to the clinic and x-ray facility (which in our case are the same place). The validity of the form is 90 days. There are 4 copies of the same form. 1 for the employer (white), 1 for the doctor (green), 1 for the x-ray facility (yellow) and 1 for the lab (pink). If you are not sure what to do with the forms, just present it to the clinic when you bring your maid for the check-up, they’ll know what to do with them.

Our next step is to bring the maid to the clinic for a medical check-up and x-ray. We’ll probably do that later this month.

Next: Renewing Maid’s Work permit – Step 2 Health Screening

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.

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.

1. 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
2. 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.
3. 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.

1. 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.
2. 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
3. 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.

Perhaps you may also find my step-by-step summary of “how to renew your maid’s work permit yourself” useful.

Links to agencies:

1. Fomema Registration Procedures
2. Imigration Department of Malaysia’s Official Website
3. 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:

• It only took 15 minutes to renew my maid’s permit
• It’s RM500 not RM800 for maids

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:

• USJ Web Forum Topic – Indonesian Maid Extension to 3rd Year
• Lowyat.net forum topic – Renewing maid extension to 3rd year. How much cost with DIY
• USJ Web Forum Topic – Renewal Permit for maid