Hiring maid coming from bad employer

Over the years I have twice hired maids who were with families that were leaving Qatar. In NEITHER case did she have to leave and re-enter. I had the form from the Labor Dept. authorizing me to hire a Filipina, and the no objection form signed by the previous employer, as well as copies of their RP. In one case we hired an agency to walk the paperwork through for us, and in the other case the PRO from my work did it. In each case it took a matter of days, not weeks or months. The first time was 4 years ago, and the 2nd time was about 1 1/2 years ago.

What an excellent idea! I ultimately hired the very first housemaid I met when I moved to Qatar - she was working for another family, who is now leaving - so I'm no longer looking. There are plenty of people who do, though, and will appreciate your advice.

The problem with the agencies is that you don't get much info about the maid/nanny you're hiring. I was given a bunch of applications the other day at an agency but there isn't enough info to help you choose one maid over another. Height, weight, religion, education, which is usually similar for all of them and very little info to differentiate. I recently found a maid/nanny through greataupair.com which is a website that enables you to deal directly with the applicant. You can discuss your requirements at length via e-mail, conduct phone interviews, request references from the applicant and obtain contact information of previous employers. Once you've come to an agreement, you can provide an agency in Qatar with her name and contact details and they will contact her in her home country and take care of all the neccessary paperwork. I'm still waiting for mine so I don't know if I've done the right thing! Granted, I didn't ask too many questions or ask for references, just decided to go for it. I can still return her to the agency though so I have all the bases covered.

Expat Sueño - There is a QL member called "Marcus V" who is British and married to a Philippina wife. He offered to find a reliable maid from the source at free of charge and he will guide you on the process here. PM me if you want to call him.

Ban Spoon Feeding not Me

Askme I cant agree with you there. You can generalize all you want, and perhaps you dont know many arabs but they dont all treat their maids poorly. We definatly do not mistreat our maid nor does anyone we know, they are valued members of our families.

If you look at expats post she said the family mistreating the maid was Indian.

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock - Will Rogers"

It is only Asian- which are king enough and understand poor people problem and let her go. Qatari or Arab will never let any maid to go... How they can let a SLAVE out?

Qatari will direct deport her to her hime town if she speaks!

Hooray, we finally got our maid's passport with our sponsorship in it this week! It took nine months, 2900 QR and three applications to the Ministry. More tedious than difficult, as you say. But now she doesn't have to pay "kick-back" money to her agency and we are all very pleased. Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for the pumpkin!

Mandi

Good to know melissaphoto. I keep hoping that we'll find the perfect maid so I can know what direction we're going with this whole thing. I'm interviewing someone tomorrow who is working for a departing British expat - so hopefully that will work out. If she doesn't pan out, though, I think I'll just punt and go through an agency. sigh. ..

Hey Roxanne--we're in the middle of transferring a visa for our maid.....it's not too difficult but it's tedious. Our HR department at my hubbys company is dealing with it, as I'm sure yours would also. It is a long process, like two or three months but I just didn't want to deal with agency fees.

Expat I would strongly advise an agency, they take care of all the difficulties and also give you a bit of reassurance because if you dont get on with her you can return her (I dont want this to sound like human trade so please forgive me for lack of better wording) and they will supply you with another.

"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock - Will Rogers"

Things didn't go as well as I had hoped this morning. Her sponsor hadn't paid her for four months and treated her very poorly, so she ran away. She's now working for a family that also treats her horribly. Her original sponsor has her papers and she's terrified to go back to them to get the papers. . .and I'm not about to delve into that mess.

I do appreciate the info, though - I think I'll just bite the bullet and go to an agency. . .will start a thread with other questions about that.

Cheers,

Expat Sueño

Expat there may be posts but any way you do it if you want a live in the visa will still be an issue.

Anyone who works for you part time needs a letter from their sponsor stating they have no issue with them working part time. The best thing to do is either go to an agency or if you like this Filippina you can get your husbands company to apply for a housemaid visa for you (it has to be for a specific nationality, they dont do blanket visas for maids). Once you get the approval and the maid has a NOC all you have to do is book her a flight to Bahrain (they dont even get off the plane) and she enters on the new visa.

After she arrives on the new visa she does her residency permit and you are good to go. I would however check with the Philippines embassy, they have very strict rules for maids, you may even have to go through a recruiting agency anyway.

"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock - Will Rogers"

I agree she;d be more likely to feel relief rather than going all out party. Most of htese poor women feel that their position is too unstable to risk. So long as you treat her with humanity then i'm sure u'll have no problems at all.

I didn't realize that the visa transfer was going to be such an ordeal. Ugh. Either I'm hoping that it won't work out so I won't have to deal with it OR I'm hoping it will work out so I can end this tedious search. . .hmmmmm.

I will likely hire *someone* (whether this woman or someone else)who needs to have their visa transferred. Is there a website or a forum message or something that details exactly what I/we need to do, where I/we need to go, etc?

Thanks so much,

Expat Sueño

They may be wanting to release her because they dont want to pay to send her back but be careful expat, make sure you have full consent of her employer and such. Also you need to apply for a visa for a filippina maid, once you get that she will have to have an NOC from her currently employer. They will have to cancel her RP because they cannot bring another maid without doing so as they are only allowed one maids visa. If this is all done and you have a visa in hand she will have to leave the country (there is a flight to Bahrain with QA) and come back on the new visa.

Not all maids are suited to all families. She may be great in your house whereas they will tell you she was terrible. Ask her employer how much they pay her (this would have been what she asked for initially from the recruitment agency) and if you feel it is low offer her a few hundred more. You can always increase it later if you find she is good but if you take her from another family you will not get the agency protection such as being able to change the maid if you find she is indeed not for you.

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock - Will Rogers"

I think she'll probably just feel relief, rather than party mode. If I were kept "slave", I'd be doing 'just enough' which is probably why they want rid of her.

Did you Google it first?

I think I would question why they are letting her go if they have a virtual slave. That is so sad and disturbing!

: words of wisdom :

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Fin