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Maid Permit, Passport and Contract Renewal 2021 Part 5

Update 7 July 2022: So I decided to use my lunch break to head over to Shah Alam PKNS building to see if I can sort this nightmare maid passport scenario once and for all. Its a long drive but I finally reached there, found a parking and found myself wandering around the hallways of this immigration, reminiscent of a rat looking for its way around a maze. This twisted building is even worse than the DUTA, because this just has hallways and a cacophony of human noises and human smells. It feels surreal than in 2022, we are still floundering in such terrible conditions for immigration.

I finally sourced where the maid renewals were done and duly queued again, and after around 40 minutes, I finally got to the front. What irritated me second most was that the person behind absolutely had no sense of personal space. You know those morons that stand draped over your shoulder and when you move forward in the queue, they just step next to you like they want to smell your ass? So I had a moron behind me breathing down on me, as if if he stood nearer to me, he could then be merged with me as a single human and he can get to skip one person in this God-forsaken queue in this God-forsaken hellhole called Immigration. Second most. Because what irritated me most was what followed.

Finally reached the immigration officer, a young man who had a sneering look on his face of a man who, at this young age, had lost all hope of any life renewal and now faced the next 40 years of his working life suffering behind this soulless institution called Malaysian Immigration Department. I explained to him and he said, “Yes, this is the correct queue.”

Before I could respond and celebrate, he continued, “But we are out of Queue Numbers. Come back again another time.”

It’s 2 pm. On a work day. They close at 5. There is 3 more hours of actual work hours. And you now say you can’t service because of no more queue number. What Godless country are we living in, that at 2 pm, these buggers called Immigration would mail it in and say, no more queue number.

NO MORE QUEUE NUMBER? In the year 2022??!

I looked at him incredulously and he just looked back in his dimly lit eyes, bereft of any empathy, sympathy or general signs of actual life. I felt, truly and I am not demeaning his work – I really really felt that I was talking to a zombie, or a soulless person. Because I knew whatever I said, was meaningless and he would only repeat himself. There was no processing capability, no ability to say other things or explain anything, just a mindless “No more queue number.”

I asked him, “What time do you guys run out of queue numbers?” – paraphrasing, “When does your lazy ass actually do any work?”

And I could swear, he gave a smirk of satisfaction, an almost sneering, inyourface you sonofab*tch useless citizen of Malaysia look to me, and half spat, half spoke :- “Morning, just queue early in the morning.”

This is Malaysia. And we all wonder why we get hated so much by Malaysians, Singaporeans, Zimbabweans and all citizens of this known world and also any unknown aliens not found yet in our galaxy. This is truly the most inept, useless, bottom of the barrel sort of service we’ve come to expect from our immigration.

The irony is that, the IC department is very good and everyone has great reviews. It’s almost as if the IC department is the blue eye department of the whole ministry, while the maid passport division is where all the $hit officers flow to like a diarrhea purge of the body. It doesn’t matter if you are from the Duta or Shah Alam or anywhere else, the immigration is truly a nightmare to deal with. I rather wish a thousand deaths by quartering on someone that to have to deal with the Immigration department of Malaysia.

So another day, another time loss, and still nothing to show for it. The war against the ever invincible Immigration Department continues.

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Maid Permit, Passport and Contract Renewal 2021 Part 3

OK, so here we are, Part 3 of this adventure called Maid Renewal. So after getting the documents and the timing for the maid contract renewal with the embassy, the next task is – yup, you got it – head over to the embassy itself.  I did mention that I could not find the previous contract but in reality, my wife had it filed up somewhere and she magically brought it up upon request. My wife keeps track of everything and files it up methodologically so she can bring it up again at a moment’s notice – from receipts, bank statements, housing and car loans, university documents, all the times that I made mistakes in our marriage – you know like any normal woman would.

So armed with the 8 documents, the only thing difference in renewal for MCO is

  • 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.

Because, the good news is that the employer no longer needs to hand around. All I need to do was to sign everything that needs to be signed and off I went about my day. And this is a huge huge plus. Because it was only around 4 – 5 hours later that I received the call from my helper to state she is done, and from there I just arranged a GRAB for her and boom, we now have the new contract + new permit on an expired but extended passport. Contract done for the next two years.

The final level is to get her renewed passport (she has a set day – Tuesday – to collect, based on the receipt she has from the embassy – don’t lose that!), so its just a matter of getting the right day to go over and collect the passport, then I will (I think) need to go to the immigration to transfer the permit over to the new passport physically as well as on the system. And after that, we are done – and the cycle then repeats itself.

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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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Maid Contract Renewal 2019

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.

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Renewing Maid Permit – Part 2

For a golf blog, strangely one of the higher hits article is one I wrote in November last year for renewal of maid permit in Malaysia: http://gilagolf.net/gilalogy/renewing-maid-permit-in-malaysia/

Hence, it’s proven at the utmost ineptitude of our public services that so many people are at lost on how to renew their maid’s permit in Malaysia.

This year, we had to undergo something slightly different, namely the renewal of the maid’s passport and also the contract renewal (we didn’t even realise this), before going for the permit renewal. So you see, every year, there is a whole crap lot of renewal going on.

Firstly, the contract needs to be renewed first before the passport can be renewed. Now, I know there are manual ways to do the maid renewal, but we didn’t mind paying a little extra for our agent to help us out (plus, we think this agent is good. If anyone needs a reasonably good agent, drop me a note). Basically she took care of everything for us, and filled up all the required forms. We ended up paying around RM1,500 for the stamp and notary and insurance and agency fees, and also the embassy verification. Could we have done it ourselves? Probably, but it would have taken us some time to do it.

Once this was settled (you need to give copies of your maid’s old passport and permit, as well as your IC), we then head over to the embassy to sign off the contract and also at the same time work out the passport renewal. Once at the embassy, the agent was there and she sorted out everything for us, I just signed the contract (2 years) and then the passport was sorted out. The maid had to be there and we went for lunch and after that, the process was done. We just needed to collect it after a couple of weeks. There’s probably a whole bunch of articles on how this can be done manually without the agent to help, but since this is the lazy-man’s version, I would suggest to just use the agent to expedite the process.

Now you have the new passport, everything is settled, right?

No.

If you try to do what was in last year’s article, you will have a problem at the MyEG page (assuming you have sorted out all your Fomema stuff, which is the same as the previous article).

The MyEg site will state that there is invalid passport tied to your name. This means that if you renew the passport you need to make an extra trip to the immigration (in my case, Jalan Duta), and go to the second floor and state that you have a maid new passport, and they need to tie that passport to your name.

Honestly while this may look stupid, the whole process took around half hour only – the lady behind the counter was courteous and efficient, and the only problem was just the normal waiting period for your turn to be called up.

Once the passport is tied to your name, all you need to do then is to proceed with payment and once more head to the 21st floor of the IBM tower (it is named ‘CN’ for some reason on the lift button), and once on 21st floor, you just need to pass your maid’s passport and proof of payment. And bring your own IC.

Again, wait for another half hour or more and they will then lead you into another room where they pass you the maid’s permit card and also paste the new permit into the new passport. Bring along the old passport for verification.

Boom! Another year done. Contract renewal is every 2 years. Maid permit every year. Fomema, hopefully by next year, there is no longer a need.