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MAID Renewal 2024 – The Journey Begins

So here it is again.

I don’t know if anybody is still reading this. I feel like a traveller in the outer reaches of the solar system, entering the Oort Cloud, writing this for my posterity that if I should die one day, someone would realize how much torture I had to endure year in year out dealing with this f-ing mess called the Malaysian Immigration. I swear if there was a sport called Inefficiency and Absolutely Hopelessness for Civil Service and Humanity – we win the Gold Medal. The silver belongs to a group of rabid racoons nibbling cocaine in the middle of the amazon jungle.

So, now I am left with two choices. Remember the bloody MyEG? Apparently they have gotten their act together, according to my father in law and the maid renewal is back online. However, I feel like it’s a toxic relationship. As in an abusive one you know. Everytime we think MyEG is going to change and become the caring service it was meant to be, we get betrayed by some shitty experience. I don’t know.

The e-PLKS didn’t fare much better, but I thought, hell, let’s just give this new gal a try right. First year relationships generally ain’t easy.

So this year should in theory be easier because there is no renewal of the contract, as well as no renewal of passport, as well as no return to phillipines for my maid.

So Fomema, fomema.

Largely the same. Head to https://portal.fomema.my/, register, and get the clinic selected and then just go to the clinic. My maid and I are so good at this already that I just drop her off, and then organize the travel to the nearby x-ray through Grab and to get home with Grab. No more wasting my time waiting. She and I are like Simon and Garfunkel of Fomema.

Fomema is good now – after about a week, the status turns to “SUITABLE” and now I am all go.

So go to https://imigresen-online.imi.gov.my/.

Click on Permohonan Lanjutan PRA (after login, and thank God I have the login already from last year)

Click on The link for your maid

Click on the tab Muat Naik Dokumen

The problem is the drop down list only has “Pas Khas (Jika Perlu)” and nothing else. It was supposed to have option for two : the passport detail page and your permit page. Both missing.

So don’t panic, I just selected Pas Khas for both documents and uploaded. The stupid system only allows 250kb to be uploaded (no doubt due to the stinginess of storage). So unfortunately, their original pass document is around 350KB so ironically, this system CANNOT ACCEPT THEIR OWN DOCUMENT.

Clap hands. Malaysian inefficiency gold medal.

I had to take screenshot and paste it on another word document, convert it into PDF and make it smaller than 250kb. What if it was my mother who knows nothing about PDF conversion? Will she be forever stuck in this loop where the damn system disallows the very document they gave to be submitted back again. It’s like a mother, after being given her new born baby, only to toss it into the garbage bin. Yes. This is e-plks.

So now I just cetak the slip Akuan penerimaan and wait for the next step. To be updated soon!

Update 26 August: So after a few days, recheck the eplks website and under status permohonan, you should be able to see “Permohonan Telah Diluluskan.
Sila Teruskan Pembayaran”.

Checkbox the selection and in the tiny box in the right hand top of the table, click “Bayar”. The price is RM631, which I suppose is similar to MyEG. Easy enough to pay, online banking and we’re done.

The status will change to “Bayaran telah dibuat”. So far so good.

Update 28 August: Wow.

Impressed.

In 2 days after payment, I checked the site again and guess what, unbelievably, the status has changed to: “Muat Turun ePass”

In 2 days.

This is beyond what I can imagine and I must say, if you can get past the initial nightmare of getting the access to E-PLKS, the entire process of maid renewal is absolutely painless. No more souless interaction with MyEG that adds zero value and takes weeks to do shit that can be done in 2 days. 2. Days.

Now next year might be different  because its the renewal of the contract and then she is flying back home, but for this year, amazingly, from fomema visit to clinic to getting the VISA: less than a week.

Well Done, Malaysia. Syabas indeed.

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Maid Permit, Passport and Contract Renewal 2021 Part 2

Following up on the previous post, the reason why it took so long is because MyEG took eons to process the working visa. I sent it in first week of October and only on the third week of November (7 weeks) I received finally a call for the guy to come over to paste the work permit onto the passport. So, yeah, keep that in mind that that’s the timeline they are working on basically, due to the MCO as well.

So once that is done, we have now an extended passport with a valid working permit. The next level in this game of “Maid Renewal” is to renew the contract.

So firstly, this is the first time we are doing it ourselves, so beware. Previously the nice agent did everything (for a fee), so now the adventure is to do everything on your own. Start off with downloading the Standard Employment Contract for Filipino Domestic worker.  It is found here – http://www.philembassykl.org.my/main/images/pdf/POEA_Standard_Empl_Contract_for_DW___-_revised_10262017.pdf

However, in case the link changes, it’s probably wiser for you to just google it and get it. Fill it up with the necessary details. Additional to this, you need to get the affidavit of undertaking for domestic worker – http://www.philembassykl.org.my/main/images/pdf/Affidavit_of_Undertaking_for_Domestic_Worker.pdf

Both need to be notarized by a legal professional, so go ahead and get that done which won’t take a long time or won’t cost much.  As per the embassy website, the full list of requirements are

  1. Previously verified employment contract;
  2. Duly accomplished POEA Standard employment contract for Domestic Worker (download form), must be notarized by any Malaysian Notary Public;
  3. Photocopy of worker’s valid passport;
  4. Photocopy of worker’s valid working visa;
  5. Photocopy of employer’s IC;
  6. Insurance for the worker;
  7. Passport size photo of the worker; and
  8. Notarized Affidavit of Undertaking (for domestic worker registered on site & renewal without agency) – (download form)  
  • Processing of contract verification for new/change employer and whose period of employment with the present employer is less than five (5) years, must be coursed through an accredited Malaysian agency.
  • Both the direct employer and DW must appear at the Embassy during the renewal of employment contract if processing thru accredited Malaysian agency is not required anymore.

The next level of game is hard. TO get an appointment with the embassy. This is tough. So you need to head over to http://philembassyklappointment.biz/.

Select POLO Contract Verification.

You will find all dates are FULL. No worries, all you need to do is do like previous – try at 8 am in the morning for the extra slots. Which I did. Again. And Again. And Again. For 3 full days I was there at 8 am in the morning, furiously clicking on the damn page. The damn page goes down at 8 am every morning because too many people are trying the same thing as I am, and also the page is designed by a bunch of semi intelligent planktons. If you knew a flood of people are hitting your page at 8 am, just increase your capacity of the page resources lah! You will either get page not available, service down or various other excuses that the page cannot handle the load. Look, this is the official page of the Phillipines EMBASSY. It’s an official page representing a COUNTRY. Not a company. A COUNTRY. How much budget do you think you need just to build a simple appointment website? 6 billion?

So on the fourth day, I had 3 windows up, 2 laptops logged in, one with my Wi-Fi, the other with my Mobile. Various browsers, with multiple tabs so I can simultaneously cause more traffic to kill the page. If I can’t get an appointment, I will sure as hell make sure no one can, till they fix this damn page. This was a similar battle with the Vaccination appointment page.

Finally, today, I managed to get (by luck) a random timeslot (noon) for tomorrow and I quickly fill in the details. It helps to just fill in your details in a text file first, so you can copy and paste it onto the form. Because one of the days I actually dilly dallied on the form information entry and someone beat me to that slot.

So this level conquered! The next step is to go to the embassy itself with the maid and do the renewal. I do have a problem – I have all the documents required, except for the previous contract, which I have no clue where I put it. That might be a problem, but we will see what happens in part 3.

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GilaSale Updated

Finally updated the GilaSale page for purchases below RM200!

We’re working on setting up a proper Ebay site to get some of our store room stuff out. so thanks for being patient. Here are just some of what we have:

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Lacking Updates

There’s been a lack of updates of late…not because we’ve suddenly stopped playing golf, but because we’ve been replaying on the same courses already reviewed. It’s very rare that we actually change our minds about the courses and change a course rating from its original rating. So, just to let the very few visitors our humble site has, that we’re still very much alive, very much hacking up golf courses, and will be writing a post as soon as we get our butts to a course we have not reviewed yet!