Hi All,
After doing some intensive research , the following below are the procedures of hiring applicable:
Malaysia government allows for direct hire on 8 countries as LONG as they are physically in Malaysia under tourist or social visit pass or currently working in the country. All they need to do is apply to convert the tourist visa or to transfer visa under their employment online as link below.
However the tricky part is hiring someone from Indonesia and the Phillipines. Both countries may come in to Malaysia with one month social visit pass once they are at the Malaysian airport. Unfortunately both countries, their government do not allow direct hiring and requires the usage of registered agencies to ensure the safety of their people working overseas which contradicts the law by the hiring countries like Malaysia and Qatar. Therefore it is very hard for this 2 nationals to LEAVE their country as the immigration in the Philippines and Indonesia are very strict. If they suspect that they are leaving the country to work at the country they are traveling to in the pretext as a tourist, they will be immediately be off loaded and not able to board the plane to Malaysia.
Hiring those who are PHYSICALLY in the Philippines :
A:For Malaysians:
Option 1: 100% must use agency to have no risk of being offloaded at the Phillipines airport. In order for them to process the paperwork in the Philippines , the employer need 2 things:
1. Calling Visa by Malaysian Immigration
2. To authenticate and verify Philippines standard contract.
Even though, Malaysian government allows maids online application for those already in Malaysia. They do not allow Malaysian to process their own paperwork to process the Calling visa. So, item no.1 can only be done by agencies.( the maid will have to do medical in the Philippines and send the report to Malaysia to submit to apply for the calling visa including their passport copy). For Item no. 2 , only Philippine accredited agencies allowed to authenticate this standard contract and send both item no.1 and no.2 by courier to their counterpart agency in the Philippines to start the processes in the Philippines. Once there, other processes will start including doing trainings and seminars, submit paperwork to POEA, get the visa chop at Malaysian embassy, police clearance, registration at OWWA and getting OEC( exit permit to exit the phillipines). The cost for all these is minimum RM12,000 from Accredited Philippines agencies.( please check the list from POLO office at the Philippines embassy)
Option 2: Leaving as a tourist from the phillipines is very difficult as you need the following below as the link: http://www.immigration.gov.ph/faqs/travel-req
Require proof of financial capability like a job with company ID and salary slips for 6 months, and if none a “ show money” maybe amounting at least RM5000 , a return flight ticket(1 week stay), or a package tour and hotel bookings, or the strongest link is to have an invitation letter by a family member related to the maid: http://philembassykl.org.my/main/index.php/consular-services/notarial-of-affidavit-of-invitation-letter
This invitation letter must be notarised by the Philippines embassy in Malaysia as above link info.
A Malaysian can do the invitation letter too but maybe it might raise suspicion that the maid plans to come work for the Malaysian. But stronger if the letter is from a family member living in Malaysia. This way is a high risk method as they might get offloaded at the Philippines airport. Employers using this method must acknowledge this way is the highest risk among all methods. But it has worked for some people and they able to arrive to Malaysia as a tourist. Coming in to Malaysia is NOT a problem but trying to exit the Philippines is a huge problem. But once they are in Malaysia , easily can convert to work permit visa and then once there is work permit you can register their Philipines standard contract with Philippines Overseas Labour Office(POLO) office at the Phillipines embassy in KL. This registration is important to protect both the employer and employee’s interest. It is register the Malaysian employer as the registered employer of the maid and if they want to go back for holidays , they can apply for OEC so that easily go home for holidays and come back to the registered employer. If this step is not done with POLO, means the maid is only legally recognised in Malaysia as a legal maid but they are not recognised by the Philippines government and therefore if not registered, they are not able to go back for holidays as they cannot get the OEC. So employer’s cost here is only the flight ticket(average about RM1300 return flight) and Malaysian work permit process ( less than RM1500). There are some underground “agencies” who has a “working relationship” with the immigration officers at the Philippines airport but it will cost around minimum of RM4000 which says 100% the maid able to exit. They call this “Immigration escort service”. But some may be authentic but quite a lot are scams.
Hiring those who are PHYSICALLY outside the Philippines :
Option 3 : Malaysian employer best option is to get someone in Malaysia who is already on tourist social pass or existing working visa. Some are already here under social visit pass and born the cost of traveling into Malaysia. But some are not in Malaysia but outside the Philippines example in Singapore, HK, Qatar, Dubai etc. Majority of them when they finish their contract they are looking work opportunities. So, instead of flying back to their home country, they can fly direct from the country they are in. For example from Qatar direct to Malaysia. In this case, this is where the loophole to the Philipines NO direct hire system. The Philippines government can definitely control those in their home country physically but they cannot control those outside of their country. All they need is to fly direct to Malaysia and come in as a tourist and employer can convert them to work visa and later register at POLO Malaysia. For registering the contract , you can try do yourself or using the Philippine accredited agency at minimal cost. I have created in April 2015 another fb group called Maids in Qatar in which the Malaysian employer can source their own without using agency. All they need to pay is flight ticket and the Malaysian work permit (less rm2000) with the Malaysian immigration. Maids in Malaysia is only been created in November 2017. So , employers can post ads in both groups for direct hire. The phillipines minimum salary is USD 400
B: For Expatriates in Malaysia.
Option 1: Same like option 1 as for the Malaysians above. Must use accredited Philippine agency but for expats they can do their own “calling visa” and just pay accredited Philipines agencies to handle the paperworks on the Philippines side. The total cost of this would be less than RM9000 including flights. You can apply the calling visa to the Expatriate Services Division in Putrajaya. See the link below on the procedures and forms and documents needed:
Option 2: as above same for Malaysians
Option 3: Same as above for Malaysians except cannot apply online but apply at the Expatriate Services Division Putrajaya
For Indonesian Nationals , their Indonesia immigration at the the Indonesian airport is not as strict as the ones in the Philippines. As long as the maid shows the cash money to go as a tourist to Malaysia and a return ticket, they can fly to Malaysia as a tourist. Once arrive convert to work permit and later register their standard Indonesian contract at the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia. This is so that they can go back for holiday and able to come back to work for the employer. Have not done much research yet for Indonesian maids. This is because currently I am focusing more to the Philippines as am planning in the midst of bringing a maid from Philippines.
Any questions, please message me. Thanks.