Direct hire a domestic helper in Kuching, under Sarawak’s own permit system

Why is Kuching a separate application from Kuala Lumpur?

Sarawak kept control of its own immigration when it joined the Federation in 1963 and has held onto it since. Its own permits, its own labour department, its own medical provider. A domestic helper permit issued federally in Kuala Lumpur does not authorise her to work in your house in Kuching, and putting her to work on one is an immigration offence committed by you.

This is also why we’re here and not filing your Sarawak case from a call centre somewhere else. Our office is in Kuching, the licence is a Sarawak licence, and Elaine files these herself.

What does a Kuching direct hire include?

The same five pieces of work as the Peninsular service, filed to Sarawak’s requirements instead of the federal ones.

• Medical arrangements in Indonesia or the Philippines, including paying the clinic on your behalf
• Biometric registration and the visa application, filed by us
• Source-country compliance, training and certification
• Flight booking, airport pickup and insurance
• Permit issuance, delivered to your home

Decided by

Immigration Department of Sarawak, under the Malaysia Agreement 1963

Medical

SAFHIS, in Sarawak

What you hold at the end

A Sarawak work permit and an NSIC card

Agency licence

JTKSWK0042-C/24

How long does a Kuching direct hire take?

Eight to ten weeks if your candidate is Indonesian. Twelve to fourteen if she’s Filipino. Those are our own figures from Sarawak files, and the difference is the Department of Migrant Workers: the Philippines requires contract registration and an Overseas Employment Certificate before she can fly, and neither step can be hurried.

The clock starts when we have your documents, which is usually the step households control and underestimate. Send them in the week you say you will and the timeline holds.

What does it cost to direct hire in Kuching?

We haven’t published a Kuching direct-hire fee yet, and we’d rather tell you that than reuse the RM2,880 Peninsular figure. Sarawak files on a different permit system with a different medical provider, and a household budgeting against a number we borrowed from another jurisdiction would be budgeting against fiction. Ask, and you’ll have a written quote inside one working day.

What we can publish is the alternative. Full placement in Kuching is RM17,800 before salary, and that includes sourcing, training, certification and refund cover. Direct hire will come in well under it, because the sourcing and the training are the expensive parts and you’ve done the first one.

How do you bring a helper from Indonesia to Sarawak to work?

Two systems have to agree. Indonesia documents her as a migrant worker before she leaves, which means an accredited medical, training, certification and a contract its mission will endorse. Sarawak then issues the work permit and the NSIC card at this end. We hold Indonesian mission accreditation 0010.IE-KC.APS.2022 and the Sarawak agency licence JTKSWK0042-C/24, so both halves are filed by the same people.

West Kalimantan is close and that helps. A candidate from Pontianak has a shorter and cheaper journey to Kuching than one from East Java, and the medical is easier to arrange. Tell us which town she’s in before you assume the cost.

You can check us on Indonesia’s own register before you pay us anything, and you should.

What happens if the employment doesn’t work out?

Published, because an exit price you can’t see is a reason to stay in an arrangement that isn’t working. Termination is quoted per case at these rates.

A settlement she signs is RM1,500 either way. A dispute is RM2,500 or RM3,500. Call us before you raise it with her. The cheaper route for you is also the one that sends her home with her wages settled instead of into a labour complaint.

What do we ask of you in return?

One thing. Keep to the contract you sign. We’ll do the filing, the chasing and the arrival logistics, and the price holds as long as the employment itself is lawful. This is the part of a direct hire that an agency would otherwise supervise for you, and it is now yours.

• Pay the salary in the contract, in full, on time, into an account in her name.
• Give her the rest day the contract provides, or pay the overtime rate instead.
• Register her with PERKESO and keep the contributions current.
• Renew her permit before it lapses. A lapsed permit is your offence, not hers.