OEC, Oversea Employment Certificate, Home Leave application DIY for Philippines Domestic Helper

If you are trying to do home leave for your worker and find that the agency is charging extrobitant Fees you can try doing it yourself. It is quite frustrating dealing with the Philippines Embassy as the information about the process and application is simple unclear and insufficient. Additionally, the embassy ruling is ever changing, rule change can be as drastic as 3 months duration. For those that have read through other blog regarding the process, it could be out dated.


I am operating an Employment Agency myself. The name of my company is BEE LEE MAID AGENCY LLP. so feel free to share additional information. i will answer your questions to the best i can. :)


Before you proceed with the DIY home leave application. Your Worker has served continuously for at least two (2) years with the same employer/ or you. Otherwise you need to get a accredited employment agency in Singapore to help you with the processing of the home leave.

**list of prerequisites and preprerequisites.

1. Valid Employment Contract ($59.50) In order for you to get this, you need to follow a series of steps and document required. here is a list of what document you need for Employment contract. 

a. The empty employment contract. (download from Philippines embassy website under Form Tab)

b. Worker work permit card

c. worker's valid passport

d. employer IC

e. Employer undertaking

f. Purchase of Philippine embassy $7000 bonds ( you can get it from the insurance company that provide FDW insurance.)

g. make sure your worker and you sign on the necessary documents.

Prepare 2 sets of about mention documents for the contract to be process. (processing time is 3 working days.)

Once you receive the contract,

Here are the steps to follow,

1. Create an email account for your worker. ( thats right, you never see it wrongly, the first step is to create and email account. ) As of 2014 the OEC process have to book through online, and a appointment have to be make using a valid email account.

2. Have all your informations about your worker ready goes to http://www.philippine-embassy.org.sg/ scroll to the bottom right of the page, click on "CLICK HERE FOR OEC APPOINTMENT"

3. Register as a user, using the email account that you have created from step 1.

4. Key in the necessary information in the user account and book for the appointment date for the OEC.

Once appointment is make, the embassy will send a confirmation to the email address that you registered.

5. On the appointment date, bring the original work permit, valid passport, and the original Employment contract that you process during the prerequisites.

6. Make payment for owwa membership. ( This is the prerequisite as well, but because you can purchase it on the day of your appointment date, so i put it here on the last steps.) 

7. Make another payment of 3 dollars for the exit pass. The exit pass will send to the email address of the worker. 

Follow the steps strictly to get the process smooth, otherwise u might have  to travel back and for to the embassy for the slightest mistake that you have make.

Welcome your domestic helper with wide open arms after two weeks without her. However if you made the effort to bond with your children during this period of time, you’d somehow realise that your helpers don’t make great parents of your children. There is no substitute for you.

Good luck to all with your helper hiring, be nice and be calm. Happy Hiring!!

Hiring a Maid In Singapore " How to Select a Maid for Yourself "

Having in this industry for a while, and listen to so many stories that is involving the hiring a maid in Singapore, I have come to realise a few things about selecting a suitable maid for employer themselves.

I am operating an employment agent mainly deal with Foreign Domestic Worker. As you know, hiring a suitable maid for individual household could be a difficult task. Having gone through Hundreds of candidates, process and documentations, not to mention the cost involving the hiring, and you might still find the worker not suitable for your family.

So how to select a maid that is the most suitable for your own family? Here is my two cents

1. To select someone suitable, you have to understand what is your Job scope. Try to be very clear and be very objective about what is your need in hiring a worker. eg, Cooking, House Work, Care for elderly, Care of young children, care for baby, car wash etc etc.

2. understand the worker ability. In order for a worker to work according to what you require, first is to understand the worker's back ground. their age, physical build, working history etc. selecting one that most suitable for your need will be vital. eg, height, looks or place of birth of the worker might not be a key point for someone to take care of the a baby. ( I have client checking for the horoscope of the worker to find someone suitable )

3. Open for possibility. It is good for employer to know what kind of person they are looking for. But do not over specify. eg, it will be good that you realise you need some one who have experience rather than a fresh maid to save yourself from the lengthy tiring explanation. Also having deal with less adaptation and adjustment issue for fresh maid. Avoid over specify by giving hiring requirement as experience but do not want off days, not very smart but must have initiative, must be careful but fast in working.

some of the employer requirement is some what strange to me as their request is must be a fresh maid, but the English must be very good or must be able to speak Chinese. Please bear in mind all these are rather hard to get, for someone that stay in eg, Indonesia or Myanmar, to be able to speak good English is not easy. by giving those criteria as selection for maid, employer are cutting all possibility from a big pool of talent. out of ten good maids, maybe only one can speak very good English. or one out of tens experience maid do not want rest days.

Having to said all these, do bear in mind that a relationship with the worker is very important in determine the success of hiring a maid. A happy worker is a good worker. It is very important to manage the worker and provide them with a good, healthy and happy working environment.

Happy Hiring!!

Recent Chaos in hiring Filipino Maid

Hi all,

For those of you that are looking for Filipino maid, I am writing this just to let more people aware what is happening after June 2013. There are a few rules that the Philippine embassy enforce which make it even more harder for the Filipino maid to be hire.


Starting from June 2013, Philippine embassy enforce the rules that all Philippine workers' hiring expenses to be paid by the employer. Employer cannot force the worker to work for them if the worker do not wish to. Employer have send the worker back to their own country and the employer cannot stop them, even with a contract stated.

Personally I find all these rules unfair and unacceptable.

As you all know, when hiring a Filipino worker, you need to engage a Philippine agent and a Singapore agent to do the POEA. So naturally both side's agent would want to make a profit out of it. with all the food, lodging, airtickets, transport etc etc cost to bring the maid into Singapore. The total cost incur would be more than $3000. As long as the worker find it unsuitable to work with you, they have the right to go to embassy and stop the employment straight away. Employer risk losing all the expenses paid, and further more, have to send the worker back to their original country.

Any agent found to be caught or even a complain from the worker that breach the rules, will have their license suspended by the embassy. Because of these, there are many agent in Singapore stop hiring worker from Philippine. but rather, only do transfer maid in Singapore.

Why is the agent only do transfer maid?

Here is the reason,

The transfer maid is already in Singapore. The agent only need to fulfil the laws of Singapore to do the placement. so, for most agent, they are pushing the cost of hire to the worker, so that the employer do not have to incur the hiring expenses. but that is not legal as far as Philippine embassy is concern.
Which means, the agency in Singapore skip the Philippine's side documents when doing transfer. so that part of expenses incur will be bear by the worker. so in this way, both party bear some of the expenses.

Having to said all that, there are still some of the agency going through other means to bring the maid into Singapore. so for those who are hiring Filipino maid, you might find a huge different in cost of hire with different agent.

Those who go through the proper channel might find that employer are bearing a huge amount of cost, estimate more than $3000 with no guarantee of success employment.

So, is chaos everywhere, good luck for everyone hiring. Stay calm and go through carefully. Good luck!

Hiring a Maid, Direct hire and Agent Hire

I am starting this blog to share information in Singapore about Hiring a Philippine domestic helper. I am operating an Employment Agency myself. The name of my company is BEE LEE MAID AGENCY LLP. so feel free to share additional information. i will answer your questions to the best i can. :)

I shall start in writing about Direct Hire.

A Direct hire Maid means you know the maid in person, you have her contact number etc. you both agree to enter into the employer employee relationship. So the process of the paper work begin

1. To start of, as a employer, you must first attend a Employer Orientation program set up by MOM( ministry of manpower) which you can find here. http://www.sp.edu.sg/wps/portal/vp-spws/spws.cet.coursecat.csedetails/?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/wps/wcm/connect/Lib-SPWS/site-spwebsite/lifelong+learners/short+courses/fdw-eop+foreign+domestic+worker+employers+orientation+programme(+short+courses+-+foreign+domestic+worker+employers+orientation+programme)

This is a program to help understand mom requirement and the general rules for hiring a FDW in singapore.

2. Once you complete the first step, now you need to apply for a IPA ( in principle approval ) from the MOM to bring in the maid from their country of origin. You can do this by yourself or by engaging an employment agency in Singapore, usually after submitting your documents, NRIC, income tax, the worker passport etc it can take up to 7 working days to obtain the IPA. 

3. Insurances

After you obtain the IPA, you can now use the IPA letter to purchase the insurance with security bond.

With IPA and Insurance, make sure that the security bond is successfully transmitted to MOM by checking with the insurance company, the FDW are allow to enter Singapore as a Domestic helper. BUT WAIT,

This part only spell out what is requirements for the Singapore laws. The more tricky part is from the country of origin of the FDW.

4. As you know, different country have different requirements for their own people. Here is what happen

Obtain An OEC ( Oversea Employement Contract ) 

You cannot avoid the agency even if it is ‘direct-hire’: If the maid you want to direct-hire is in Philippines, the word ‘direct-hire’ is a little mis-leading. As per the regulations implemented in JUN / JUL-2010 by Philippines Embassy, Singapore, all maids who wish to work in Singapore from Philippines MUST do proper paperwork through POEA (Philippines Oversees Employment Administration). POEA formalities and paperwork are quite intense for which employers will need an agency in Philippines who can get this paperwork done for their maid. Since, the employers in Singapore would not know the agencies in Philippines, they need to engage some agency in Singapore who will have their contacts with agencies in Philippines. The agency is required primarily to do the paperwork in Philippines. Approved maid-agencies in Singapore are listed on the Philippines Embassy website. Most maid agencies in Singapore who deal with Filipino maids are approved by Philippines Embassy, Singapore. 

The labour office in the embassy only allows the employer to do the documents themself  if he/ she has employ the worker for more than 2 years. Another words, you can only do renewal yourself but you cant direct hire a fresh new worker. So you need a Singapore Agent if you need to hire a new worker.

Once you completed the requirements for the both country, then you can legally bring in the FDW from the country of origin.

5. After the FDW come into Singapore, if she is a fresh maid who never work in Singapore, she need to go for medical check up in approve clinic for medical screening and to attend a SIP course. you can register for the course after the FDW arrival. http://www.gracemanagement.com.sg/ 

FDW who have work in Singapore before ( EX Singapore Maid) does not require to do the SIP course but she still need to go for medical screening.

6. After the FDW successfully attend the SIP and pass her medical screening, you now need to request to MOM to Issue the work permit card. If you are engaging an agent, the agent will help you to do this. You can log on to work permit online if you are doing it on your own. upon successful of the issue of work permit card. you need to bring the worker to MOM for finger print registration. and obtain her Physical work permit card. Follow the requirements on the Issuewance letter. 

Once the finger print registration is completed. The worker is officially working in Singapore.

The cost involve in the hiring include

1. IPA application fee $30

2. Insurance with security bond. The cost range for this is around $200++ to 300++ depending on the package of insurance you chose. there are many insurance company that provide the cover for this. so just search around.

3. OEC 

The agencies in Singapore charges around $1200-$1500 This amount should include 

 a. one way ticket from Philippine to Singapore. 

 b. All the training required by POEA.

 c. Medical check up prior to enter Singapore.

 d. OEC certificate and the Exit permit from Philippine.

4. Medical check up in Singapore $55-$75

5. SIP course. $75

6. Issue of work permit card $30

I hope you find this information useful. feel free to drop me any question. Cheers