Hi


Does anyone have recommendations of pte tutors or enrichment centres with small classes near or around Tampines for English?

MTIA!

POA Teacher:

dianeingrid:

For all who are interested, I just \"direct hire\" my Indo maid. Pretty simple and straightforward. All she needs is an agent in Indo. Most maids will have lots of lobangs so no need to worry about that part.


I interviewed her in Singapore and her employer refused to transfer her over and instead wanted to send her off to Batam. So she went there and got an agent that handled her paperwork there. Mine paid her agent about S$100+ to do all the paperwork for her.

In Singapore, all I had to do after her employer cancelled her work permit was
1. Go to MOM website and apply for IPA ($30)
2. Once IPA approved, call NTUC to apply for bond and insurance ($300+)
3. Email the IPA over to her agent
4. Tell her when you want her in Singapore.
5. She'll purchase a ferry ticket and come over with the IPA.
6. Pick her up, send her for a medical (I used SATA @ $60+)
7. Once her medical report is out and approved, go back to MOM website and apply for a work permit. ($30)

I'm at step 6 right now so not sure how long the last part will take. But all in all, it was less than a week for step 1 - 6 and much cheaper.

I was just speaking to an Indon girl (student) on Sunday, suggesting that her parents might be able to bring in their own maid via Batam.
What documents did the agent have to do for her?
I think if they come from Batam, they probably could leave as a tourist. But enter Sg as a maid (with IPA)

By the way does the maid have a KTKLN card?
I suspect this might even not be necessary for those coming from Batam.

My maid def does not have a KTKLN card. I actually asked her to make one but she said no need. Not sure what the agent did for her but I guess it was mainly to help grease some wheels a little so that she could exit more smoothly. :evil:

I wouldn't suggest trying this with a brand new maid as you have no idea her level of English and if she does not pass the test, you would have wasted a sum of $$. :sad:

What I did was to ask my previous maid who was leaving to pass the message around to her friends as well as ask my friend's maids for recommendations. I interviewed a few from there and made my selection. Don't discount the maids network esp when they are on their off day. Very powerful and you can get lots of references, provided you are on good terms with your maid of course.

For all who are interested, I just \"direct hire\" my Indo maid. Pretty simple and straightforward. All she needs is an agent in Indo. Most maids will have lots of lobangs so no need to worry about that part.


I interviewed her in Singapore and her employer refused to transfer her over and instead wanted to send her off to Batam. So she went there and got an agent that handled her paperwork there. Mine paid her agent about S$100+ to do all the paperwork for her.

In Singapore, all I had to do after her employer cancelled her work permit was
1. Go to MOM website and apply for IPA ($30)
2. Once IPA approved, call NTUC to apply for bond and insurance ($300+)
3. Email the IPA over to her agent
4. Tell her when you want her in Singapore.
5. She'll purchase a ferry ticket and come over with the IPA.
6. Pick her up, send her for a medical (I used SATA @ $60+)
7. Once her medical report is out and approved, go back to MOM website and apply for a work permit. ($30)

I'm at step 6 right now so not sure how long the last part will take. But all in all, it was less than a week for step 1 - 6 and much cheaper.

If anyone has done this recently, please help advise how to.


I am thinking of hiring an Indo maid who is a friend’s maid’s friend. However, her employer refuses to transfer her and wants to send her off to Batam instead. She said she can just hop on a ferry back here but how do I get the paperwork done so that she can come into Singapore?

Appreciate any advise.

I just switched from A Pratamas to Bestmaid for personal reasons and I’m glad I did.


Iza and her boss Raj are really great! They actually help match me to a maid that can handle my job specifications and not just anyhow hantam one. Eg, they suggested Indo as opposed to Myanmar as I had 3 kids that the maid had to look after, suggested one maid over another due to the experience. Best part, I got my maid about 9 days after I confirmed her.

Their fees are reasonable and they are quite prompt to answer all my queries. They are also very willing to help iron out any differences with the maid and negotiate with the maid on your behalf. I would recommend this agency.

Please note though that I got an experienced maid. I can’t vouch for the standard and training of new maids as that would be done by the Indo agent.

The last Myanmar maid I had was pretty much the maid from hell. I finally sent her packing after 4 months with us and when I told her that I had bought 15kg extra luggage for her out of good will and not to overpack, she turned around and asked why only 15kg. Why I didn't purchase more. *Faint* :slapshead:


Up to you if you want to buy the extra luggage weight but do note that they tend to collect stuff from their friends for their relatives back in their village so your maid might end up with lots of stuff that are not hers. Mine had half a luggage filled with presents for her friend's relatives and actually exceeded the 15kgs that I bought for her. Thankfully, the lady at the check-in counter was really nice and closed her eyes to the extra 3kgs.

For SHPS, children are not grouped by abilities in P1. They are grouped by birthdays, if I'm not wrong. At least for my older girl currently in P2, their level was grouped by birthday months.


Although there will be a small \"assessment\", it is more to sieve out those who really need help I guess. Like those who can't even read or write their names. So don't be too stressed about it.

I'm glad that my recommendation of A.Pratama has helped a few others. For the rest, yes, Desmond can sound abit rude upfront. I had the same reply from him as well and honestly, I almost did not go down to meet him for the 1st appt. My husband said that there was no harm so we went down to talk to them and found out that he was a really nice man.


I did state before that he only deals with ex-SIN maids so you have to have been mentally prepared before calling him. Also, his agency fees are really reasonable. He tells you upfront what you are paying for as opposed to others who will either quote really high prices and lump everything all in or quote really low prices and make the maids work off the loan over 8mths.

I've introduced a few friends to him as well and they are also very happy with his service. I did also say that they are very pro-maids rights so do please be warned before you call. If you're not ok with off days etc, don't waste your time as this is not the agency for you.

I have tried a few agencies over the last few years and my 2cents worth.


Home/Budget maid- They give you bio-data, it’s up to you to choose. Really depends on your luck and they will not try to match you with a suitable one. But they are responsive when there is trouble and you need to change/transfer your maid. I didn’t face any objections from them as opposed to some agencies where they insisted it’s employers fault and/or make things difficult for you. They also did "counsel" one of my ex-maids when I faced some problems with her.

Comfort - The one in Tampines has good cs and generally try to do a matching for you. But their prices are soooo high I did not get any maid from them.

TM Global - Do NOT ever use them! I got a Myanmar maid from them and it was a NIGHTMARE!!! I told them what I was looking for (can understand english, childcare experience), they "matched" and allowed me to do so over the phone interview. 1st prospective maid, I could hear someone coaching her one what to reply so out. Next one seemingly had good responses to my questions and I confirmed her. When she came, the only think she could do was nod or shake her head and say "I not speak". For 3 days, she stood by and watched me do all the housework and look after the kids and did not lift her finger to help or even try. Got fed up, called the agency to ask for a replacement and was told that I was not allowed to under MOM rules. I had to keep her for 30 days. I called MOM and they told me not true. So they were just trying to pull a fast one on me. Gave me all sorts of excuses, blamed the Myanmar agent etc til I blew and told them that I would complain to MOM if they did not solve my problem IMMEDIATELY. Well, I got to return the maid and they refunded me most of my $$ within the week.

A.Pratama - tel# 62976913. Finally an agency that I’m happy with. They might not suit all though as they do believe in maid rights But the conditions are what I can work with. They only have ex-SIN maids. Their agency fee is also quite resonable (about 4-5mths of the maids salary) as they don’t believe in charging the girls too much. Maids that come in have off days and most have hp but are ok with requests that they keep it to off hours. If you have a problem, they are willing to help you solve it. They do have mis-matches at times but they are willing to sit down with both you and the maid to talk about the problem and help work it out to a win-win situation. Their bio-datas are quite limited but from what I can see, most are pretty good and their salary is not too high either, about $450 + 1 off day for an experienced maid which I thought was quite ok considering what some other agencies are quoting for their inexperience maids. They are also the 1st agency that actually sat down with me and went thru the whole set of documents that I was signing point by point. The rest just pointed to here, here and here and gave you the dox to go home and read. So I can safely say that I’d definately be using them again for all my and my extended families’ future maid needs.