Why the number you saw online cannot be confirmed
Search results for hiring criteria often surface a single ringgit figure stated with confidence, as though one number applies to every household regardless of where the helper comes from. Cross-checking that habit against Immigration's own published material and the standard hiring stages, which this site's overview page already lays out (approval, source-country process, FOMEMA, visa and pass, permit), shows the actual rule is source-country specific rather than one blanket figure: RM5,000 a month in net household income for a Philippines or Sri Lanka helper, and RM7,000 for an Indonesian helper on the current official page (treated cautiously here, since a conflicting RM3,000 figure survives on one stale secondary source).
A single number that doesn't name the helper's source country is the part worth treating with suspicion. The figures that are published can also change without a public announcement, so the mistake worth avoiding is treating any one number, source-country attached or not, as a fixed fact you never need to reverify.
- A repeated number is not the same as a published one.
- Agencies quote figures that can reflect internal screening, not law.
- Confirm before you budget, not after an application stalls.
Who can actually give you a current answer
Malaysian citizens are the standard applicant route, and permanent residents and long-term-visa expatriates can generally apply too, but the specific income, marital status and age criteria attached to each category are not consistently published anywhere this project has found, and each can shift over time. The Immigration Department is the authority on what currently applies, not any single agency's marketing page.
A licensed agency that handles applications regularly will also know the current working criteria, since they encounter Immigration's requirements case by case. Ask either directly, and treat what you are told as the answer for your household at that moment, not a permanent published rule you can quote to someone else later.
- Ask Immigration directly for current criteria.
- Ask a licensed agency what they see applied in practice.
- Get the answer in writing or note the date you received it.
Where this differs by state
Everything above describes Peninsular Malaysia. Sabah licenses foreign domestic helper hiring under its own Section 118 framework, and Sarawak runs the separate GENESIS/HAVEN system with employer eligibility published on its own government portal, genesis.sarawak.gov.my. Neither state's criteria can be assumed to match whatever you confirm for the Peninsula.
If your household is based in Sabah or Sarawak, start with that state's own guide rather than applying anything you read here, since the income, eligibility and process questions run through a different authority in each case.