All About Full-Time Maids

[tigger88]

Does anyone have experience in renewing your Filipino maid’s passport on your own? My maid’s contract is ending in May and her passport expiry is next Jan.


Can I renew her work permit first and then renew her passport later (maybe by end of the year)? Or do I need to renew her passport first before I can renew her WP?

[BeContented]

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[DesertWind]

AgnesMM:

Hi there, she is from Indonesia. She has 3 kids back home therefore she works very hard and she hardly goes out. Her pay is only slightly higher than the current revised pay so we are thinking of giving her another raise. She has been taking care of my DD since birth, and she treats her like her own daughter - discipline her when she misbehave, cooking DD's favorite food (and inventing new dishes for us), taking care of the house + dogs.


Maybe it was years back when we helped her by giving her a loan so that she can buy a piece of land + building a house for her family that she in one way or another paying us back - by staying put till today. In fact it was mutual trust that we have had when we gave her the loan as she can chose not to come back.

Anyway, we are very comfortable with each other (as we treat her like a family member) so I guess that could be the biggest reason why she is staying put.

Hi AgnesMM,

Wow, you really couldn't ask for more in a maid! Great one and already worked for you for 10 years - wow!

For me, my maid sounds like yours and she has worked for me for 3 & 1/2 years now. Looks after my boy real well as far as I can see and trustworthy too with loan.

She has gone back home every year 3 times already and will be going back next month again for 2 weeks when I am also on leave. She came back all the time. She has a daughter to support (no husband's help) and is in the midst of building her house halfway already.

This time she hopes to complete the back kitchen, put up the doors, windows and hopefully some tiling. Also to be there for her girl's birthday and her own, visit her girl's school to give gift packs to her class-mates, pay school fees and talk to the teacher. Her next target is to buy land and of course to support her daughter's study next year going primary school. So she is sensible and motivated.

I am also quite easy on her as in I never question her work routine, even what she eats for lunch everyday - leave it to her to manage my house since both hubby and I work full-time. She sends my boy to kindy, clean the house, wash clothes and cooks dinner. I will only ask her questions regarding my boy - same questions day in and out ie. did my boy go to school nicely, has he come back home, what did the teacher say today?

But still can't beat your maid, tried and proven for 10 years with you! Moreover, not many maids can look after dogs as well! :!: Wah, your maid super leh! My maid already told us upfront she is afraid of dogs so no go! Thus having a pet is out of the question for us. I have up my maid's pay to SGD550 due to the recent maid pay-hike so that she won't feel \"cheated\" since she is a very experienced maid. I will up it again to SGD600 upon her contract renewal 6 months later. I think this is the fair rate at this point in time for very experienced maid.

If you can afford it, do up her pay to a level you feel comfortable with. Although I also believe you would have been pretty generous with her on other areas already.

Cheers!
:celebrate:

[JRLam]

tigger88:

Does anyone have experience in renewing your Filipino maid’s passport on your own? My maid’s contract is ending in May and her passport expiry is next Jan.


Can I renew her work permit first and then renew her passport later (maybe by end of the year)? Or do I need to renew her passport first before I can renew her WP?

You can renew the work permit and passport at different time, but the end date of her renewed working permit, MUST NOT BE LATER than her passport's expiry date. So in her case, if you were to renew both separately, you can only renew her work permit to Jan 2012. Note that the passport has to be renewed at least 2 months prior to expiry (some said 6 mths, like S'porean), which means by Oct/Nov 2011 u need to decide if you want to extend her work permit. Only if so, then it makes sense to renew her passport, which is costly at $500+ current rate. Assuming you are renewing her passport in Oct'11, you need to renew her work permit AGAIN in Jan 20112 till, again, latest by the expiry date of her 'new' passport.

Very lei-chay hor! My maid is in a pretty similar situation as yours, that's why I know But she will likely NOT continue after end 2012 (said she wants to go TW!), so I will not renew her passport by then.

Has anyone renewed their maid's passport themselves, without engaging the help from agency? Can share the experience / steps?

[Tamama]

mama_g:

Tamama:

[quote=\"mama_g\"]So do ppl in Taiwan and HK pay levy to their goverment for employing maids?

yes. i am from hk and i have a maid a few years ago. we paid levy to govt every 6 months. very expensive, but no choice. and filippio and indo's salary are just the same, with one off day every week, + statutory holidays. very enjoyable in hk.

Tamama, i heard that maids there have to bear their own expenses such as toiletries etc... is it true?[/quote]yes, they pay for their own toiletries. we only provide 3 meals a day (off day on their own), beddings, etc. so they usually buy from those shops owned by fillipino/ indo so that they can save a bit.
that's why i asked about if i should pay allowance for my helper to buy her own consumables in this forum before... another headache thing to me...

[moonee]

Hi Tamama,

ok, ur frm HK. Ive seen quite a no of maids there and they do look older and confident. U mention that the tax for maids in HK is rather expensieve, how much do u pay half yearly. Oh, btw, u can quote in HKdollars. Im quite familiar with the exchange rate. :lol:

[tigger88]

JRLam:

tigger88:

Does anyone have experience in renewing your Filipino maid’s passport on your own? My maid’s contract is ending in May and her passport expiry is next Jan.


Can I renew her work permit first and then renew her passport later (maybe by end of the year)? Or do I need to renew her passport first before I can renew her WP?

You can renew the work permit and passport at different time, but the end date of her renewed working permit, MUST NOT BE LATER than her passport's expiry date. So in her case, if you were to renew both separately, you can only renew her work permit to Jan 2012. Note that the passport has to be renewed at least 2 months prior to expiry (some said 6 mths, like S'porean), which means by Oct/Nov 2011 u need to decide if you want to extend her work permit. Only if so, then it makes sense to renew her passport, which is costly at $500+ current rate. Assuming you are renewing her passport in Oct'11, you need to renew her work permit AGAIN in Jan 20112 till, again, latest by the expiry date of her 'new' passport.

Very lei-chay hor! My maid is in a pretty similar situation as yours, that's why I know But she will likely NOT continue after end 2012 (said she wants to go TW!), so I will not renew her passport by then.

Has anyone renewed their maid's passport themselves, without engaging the help from agency? Can share the experience / steps?

Thanks for your reply! I guess no choice but to renew her passport and work permit at different times as I need to bring her together for an overseas trip next month. If I renew her passport now, it will take around 8 weeks and her current passport will have to be surrendered upon application.

I think renewing maid's passport ourselves is too much of a hassle as compared to renewing the WP on our own.

[Littlefly]

Sharing my experiences in renewal of Indo maid passport here…


1) Go embassy to submit application with
IPA or temporary work permit and
2 Maid passport photos
Employer’s NRIC photocopies
Renewal charge $35

Bring maid/ original IC there for application. A collection slip will be issued informing collection time/ date.

2) Prior to collection, employer need to go in person with maid for a short interview. Only upon interview and signing of agreement by both maid and employer then they would release the passport. Interview can be anymore in the day except lunch hour (1-2.30pm).

I made the mistake as I was not clear that we have to go through the interview prior to collection. Cost me a fruitless trip there for nothing.

3) Passport collection is only available from 3-5pm. Interview can be quite short like 5-10minutes. Better go earlier like 2.30pm than taking chances to go closer to the closing time as I did before.

However, I was trying to kill 2 birds with one stone by going there around 4pm thinking i could also collect the passport. Its a mistake. Happened that only one officer was on duty that day and the case before us was a ‘problem’ case where the maid run away after 3 days after being reprimanded by the employee. She refused a transfer and insisted to be sent back Indo but the employer and agency refused to fund her airticket. So we waited in vain for over 1hr there as the passport collection counter closed at 5pm.

Looks like there is a high incidence of maids running away. Both my 2nd/3rd trips there, i witness maids running away from employers.

[gumiho]

Am glad that our helper had decided to renew her contract with us after much persuasion.


Please kindly advise how to go about with the renew of her work permit and home leave ?
Her passport will only expire in Year 2014. Does we still need to renew it ?
How to apply with Philippine Embassy for her home leave ?

[tigger88]

gumiho:

Am glad that our helper had decided to renew her contract with us after much persuasion.


Please kindly advise how to go about with the renew of her work permit and home leave ?
Her passport will only expire in Year 2014. Does we still need to renew it ?
How to apply with Philippine Embassy for her home leave ?

Since her passport expires in 2014, there is no need to renew her passport now. For wp renewal, you can do it via online. Should be pretty easy. For home leave application, I get the agency to do it for me as it is not easy to do it on our own. I paid $350 for the home leave application, documents etc when my maid went back for 2 weeks.

My fillipino maid is going to renew her contract as well. She is already with me for 4 years.