Renewing Maid's Visa I

Two weeks back we received a letter from the Immigration office stating that our maid's visa was due to expire in December.

Most leave it up to the agents to do it for them but you can save a lot of money by doing it youself. However, you can end up wasting a lot of time, if you don't know what is required and unfortunately I couldn't find any information on the net telling us what to do.I am sure a lot of people out there would be interested in knowing how to go about the whole process.

1. Renewing Registration with FOMEMA

FOMEMA Sdn. Bhd. is the foreign worker's medical examination monitoring agency in Malaysia. It is now a subsidiary of Pantai Holdings Bhd. The office address is given below:

FOMEMA SDN BHD
Lot G1-G10, Level 3, Block G (Central), Pusat Bandar Damansara,
Damansara Heights, 50490 Kuala Lumpur.
General Tel. No. :03-20946188

In order to renew the registration with Fomema, follow the steps given below.

i) First of all get photocopies of the front page of the passport as well as the work permit.

The maid need not make the trip to their office with you. Also no photographs are required for renewal of maids already registered with Fomema.

ii) Make out a bank draft for RM190/ (RM180 if a guy) to FOMEMA Sdn. Bhd.

iii) Check for the nearest medical clinic in your locality listed on the notice boards (preferably choose one with their own X-ray facilities to avoid making two trips. The list of clinics is not listed on their website.

Make sure you choose one most convenient as changing it later can cost you another RM20. Remember to write it down on a piece of paper as you have to fill it in the application form.

iv) Get your number in the queue from the lady at the enquiry counter, fill up the application form and wait for them to call your number.

This Friday, I went to their office at Pusat Bandar Damansara, followed steps i) to iv). However as they say, the best-laid plans can go astray. There was quite a number of people already there. My number in the queue was 1118 while the present number was 1080 (38 people to go). There were six counters but I soon realised that only counters 1 and 2 were handling renewals and I expected a wait of about an hour...

After an hour they were still going at a snails pace and there were about 20 people to go before my number was called. I went down to get a drink and buy newspapers. Came back up again, read and reread the Star twice from cover to cover.

I also missed my Friday prayers at the mosque - was a little guilty about it but didn't want to make the trip again. I excused myself saying that I was a musafir - a traveler and would make up for it with Zohor prayers later in the house.

When my turn finally came, more than two and half hours later, I was really mad but was calm on the surface. I mentioned it casually to the lady at the counter and she apologised saying that the system was a bit slow that day. A BIT! Between the two of these ladies, they had taken two and half hours to process the applications of 32 people (5 people didn’t turn up when their number was called). That’s almost 10 minutes per person. They better do something about their stupid system or open up more counters.

However, it took them only five minutes to print out my stuff, and I was really relieved when they called my name to pick up the documents from the counter.

2. Going to the clinic

The clinic I choose was in PJ State, about 10 mintues from my wife's house. Rushed there with the maid because they closed at 12 pm on Saturdays.

It took them only about half an hour to complete the entire procedure - medical checkup, blood samples and x-ray. I love professional and efficient organisations.

Now have to wait for at least 10 days before we can get the results. And then finally renew the Visa.