Another year, another headache. Since the article on how to renew maid VISA + contract received so many hits, I thought of just updating it to reflect the most current procedures.
a) Fomema
Fomema now has given options to do alternate year after the third year of checkup. So for instance year 1,2 and 3, then year 4 you can skip, year 5 do, year 6 skip and so on. Else, if you are like us, just do it each year. It doesn’t take a lot of effort and health is everyone’s rights.
So head over to https://portal.fomema.my/
Register worker – for some reason, workers registered previous year is not saved.
You can’t use worker code. So remove worker code and re-register again and it should work.
Pay online around RM191 and if you are like me, paranoid about credit card, just use FPX and select your bank.
Once paid we are done, print the invoice and details. We will need also the Fomema medical form by clicking the trans_id in red.
Make sure your insurance for the maid has been paid as well.
Check the portal again after a few days and you should see “Suitable, please proceed to Immigration. Thank you”. DO NOT PROCEED TO IMMIGRATION. There is nothing for you there. It’s a trick.
b) Renew VISA
There is not much difference from previous procedure. Just go over to the Myeg website, login, click on immigration and “Maid Permit Renewal”.
There you need to key in all the details of your maid, make sure you get everything correct. Including your IC, which has ‘-‘ in them. I would suggest to collect through the e-service centre due to convenience.
You will end up paying around RM631 for the maid renewal.
MYEG may call you or they may not, but within a week, you should go ahead and just ping them to check. Once the Visa is ready you can head over to their new office @ Empire City. Just take your IC and maid’s passport, no need maid.
It takes a little getting used to. When you drive into the parking, just drive straight all the way until you hit a junction. You will see a sign in front of you.
Like all things in Malaysia, do not follow this sign. Just park your car around here, and walk to the right of this sign, going diagonally. You will eventually come upon the entrance to MyEg. You need to register with the guard, get a tag then take the stairs to downstairs one flight, then take the elevator to Ground from there. It’s a very roundabout way to enter the building, so obviously its very poorly thought of. Empire City seems like a real mess.
Once on the ground, just enquire one of the guards for MyEG and he will direct you to the turnstiles where you use your tag and just head towards the new office.
MyEG new office is super different from their old place. Their old place in BU was like a trashy public motel that charges per hour. This new place is VERY professionally done and super impressive. Even more impressive was the service (granted I went on a weekday, off peak). Just take a number, and get called, pass the maid’s passport and your IC and you are done. Wait for around 15 minutes or so, and they will ping you and you now have a new VISA. SUPER! Well done, MyEG!
c) Renew VISA
Renewal of contract needs to occur every two years. I’ll admit, you probably can get this done yourself, but it depends. For me, it just seemed more convenient to get the agent to help out. I paid around 1.5K all in, which, again, could be saved but I think it’s fine.
So Contract. First of all get your documents ready.
a) Most recent contract, original, not photocopy. To be save, just bring all the past year contracts
b) Current insurance certificate (renewed)
c) Current insurance receipt
d) Current maid passport (and any old one if she has)
e) Employer’s IC
f) Maid
Photostat all of it (not the maid of course, silly) It’s important to bring the maid because you need to sign!
Set apart one day – Unfortunately I got held up in a jam and only arrived at the embassy at around 9.30 am. Previously we did it in half a day before lunch we were done when I reached at 9 am. By 9.30am the embassy was full and we were in trouble.
Don’t wear slippers! Wear shoes!
Once there, I met up with my agent, she gave me a bunch of forms to sign and so I went ahead and signed. She basically settled everything for us, including submission etc. As employer, you can leave already and go back to work. The maid technically can also leave but she needs to stay there in case her signature doesn’t get through. Also, if both of you leave, you need to arrange with your agent to get back the contract and passport. What I did was to just leave after signing and then arrange Grab for her to go back. She finished almost at 1.45 pm. So the moral of the story is to GO EARLY!
So another year is done. It’s not cheap! The whole process sets me back almost 2,300MYR, but thats the cost of upkeeping a maid these days.