Bibik oh bibik!

I've been working hard lately and I need to study for test tomorrow. Sigh. Life isnt treating me right in some ways.

Anyway, this is the year when my husband actually went berserk . Yes, we had a lot to pay and it have to happen in these few months. Last month was the final month when he finally decided to tell me 'either you go get a job or bibik has to get a new job' T_T bummer. Then my life as a so called taitai is over.

In march, we had to spend a LOT, when i say a lot it means really, A LOT. The car was not in a good shape, and when we were driving back to Kuantan from KL for my brothers wedding, the car actually got so heated up it went smokey in the middle of the road. Thank god nothing happened but it managed to pick a hole in my husbands pocket quite deep. enough said.

So this month, we actually need to renew our maid working permit. it was in total about RM650+ and i still havent got my pay. double bummer. Ive totally forgotten about the working permit that it had to be done last minute. The process, was so. so. so. annoying.

In order to get the permit renewed, I had to do a few things which I dont understand why we, malaysian have to go trough a lot of hassle. Sorry, but the government is not making our life easier. You think with all the tax our fellow Malaysian is paying every year, the least you would get is better service but no. We get better greetings, but no good service.

The first thing I had to do was to get the FOMEMA done. The maid had to go for a health screening to get her permit renewed. This only needs to be done if the maid has only been working with the same employer less than 3 yrs. 4th and the coming years do not need fomema. I went to the office in Damansara at around 11 am and got everything settle d within an hour which I thought was quite reasonable. SO I rushed back to get my maid to the selected clinic to get her checked. Fomema only accepts Bank Draft and Money Order, btw. The process is simple, just bring your bank draft/money order, fill in the form and there will be a list of all the fomema's panel clinics on the board around KL so pick a clinic near your house and register tht in the form. Call the clinic to make an appointment and show up on time. There is no payment needed at the clinic because its been made by fomema. Fomema acquires a small fee for the service provided which was RM190. It will take 10 working days to get the results out before I could proceed with the immigration to get the working permit. The results needs to be checked online before proceeding further.

I was so frustrated when I then realized that her passport is actually expiring soon, its not even enough to get the whole year permit. I have to renew her passport at the Indonesian Embassy. I just got a job so its quite impossible for me to get a whole day off so my husband had to take a day off. I tried calling the embassy but there were no answer at all. It keeps on going back to the same option no matter how many times I pressed the preferred language. As much as I am annoyed with how our government works, Id have to say, having to deal with Indonesian Embassy sucks 100 times more. Somehow it made me feel better to be a Malaysian.

So to get the passport renew my husband actually went to the embassy at 730AM with our maid. They had to wait in so long to get to their turn. When it was their turn, it was like going to a prison. They were interrogated and they way these indonesian do it was so rude. I dont get it. who do they think they are again? I really dont like to judge but youre in other peoples country so the least you could do is treat the local with respect and as disrespectful as it is, you should also assist your fellow indonesian instead of looking down at them. Its a total WTF scenario. But we managed to get her passport renewed anyway for a cost of RM18 after taking almost 8 hours my husbands time. Indonesian Embassy should really work on their PR.

The next day, I had to go to the immigration in Putrajaya to finally get her permit done. Again, immigration only accept cash if the transaction is RM200 below. since the renewal is RM445, we had to pay with bankers cheque or postal order. It took me about 30 minutes to get it done.

So to summarized, the whole process actually took us about 2-3 weeks. it is advise to get it done at least 3 months before the permit expires. This is how you actually renew your maids working permit (cara-cara memperbaharui permit kerja pembantu rumah asing):

1. Get ready at least 3 months before the permit expires
2. Renew Passport (if its goin to expire) RM18
3. Register FOMEMA RM190 > make an appointment with the selected clinic from the panel list
4. Medical Check up with the selected panel clinic
5. Wait for results >10 working days > Check results online
6. Renew permit at the immigration office (putrajaya or damansara) RM445

all transaction cant be done with CASH~!

its as easy as ABC, just that the process is long and it needs to be done in many places. its so much hassle!