“We have no reason to delay any application and the maximum time we take to process and approve is only three days if all papers are in order,” he told FMT when asked about complaints that the arrival of maids from Indonesia is very slow.

He said 115 maids have arrived so far with the mission having endorsed 537 employment contracts since the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the employment and protection of Indonesian domestic workers was signed on April 1.

The first batch of 17 maids arrived in August, Hermono added.

“We will also not know if the maids have entered the country or not after our endorsement unless the agencies inform us.”

Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) president Foo Yong Hoo said its members have complained of facing problems getting visas and were trying to get officials from the labour and immigration departments to hold a seminar to clarify the procedures.

“Agencies are a little confused as things are not very clear after the Maid Online System (SMO) was discontinued. I don’t want to blame anyone here for what’s happening. All we want is for the authorities to make things clear so that everyone can just move on,” he told FMT when contacted.

Under the SMO, Indonesian domestic workers entered Malaysia on tourist visas and then applied for work permits but this was replaced by the One Channel System (OCS) under the MoU. The SMO has been discontinued since Aug 15.

The OCS stipulates that all applications for Indonesian domestic workers must go through the integrated platform of the Indonesian embassy and the Malaysian immigration department.

Potential employers submit the documents and contracts to the immigration department to be screened for eligibility as employers.

The data is then sent to the embassy through the integrated platform and once the mission endorses the employment contract, the immigration department is to issue the visas with reference numbers.