Maids recruited directly online to arrive soon
PUTRAJAYA: Thirty-six employers are set to be the first batch to receive their maids under the Immigration Department’s new “Maid Online System” (SMO) by this week, said its Director-General Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali.
He said the 36 employers are waiting for the Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomema) to verify their documents.
Mustafar said it will take about three to five days before the maids are issued with documents such as a temporary social visit pass and i-Kad with biometric details before the process is completed.
“Since the commencement of the SMO on Jan 1, 111,000 people have accessed the system as of Jan 8, while 3,141 employers have successfully registered in the system.
“Seventy-six employers have successfully completed their maid registration,” he said at the Immigration Department headquarters yesterday.
He added that the SMO had only experienced a minor glitch when the system started, which was rectified.
The introduction of the SMO is expected to slash costs by about 80% for employers as there are no middlemen involved.
Under the system, the cost of hiring a maid is between RM1,600 and RM2,500, compared to hiring through an agency, which costs RM12,000 and above.
The costs under the SMO encompasses levy, deposit and processing fees.
The online application system was first announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak during his Budget 2018 speech.
Among the conditions for hiring a foreign maid via SMO is the requirement for a social visit pass.
If the potential maid has overstayed her social visit pass, she can still be employed but the employer must pay a compound, which could be a maximum of RM900.
It was reported that only maids who overstayed between Jan 1 and Dec 31, 2017, are allowed to be hired.
The maid must come from nine source countries – Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, Laos, Nepal, Vietnam and Cambodia.