Every rule and figure on this site traces to an official source. This hub names the main ones — Immigration, the labour departments, PERKESO, FOMEMA and the statistics department — and what each governs, so you can verify a claim directly rather than relying on a summary. Because the process differs by region, it also flags that Sabah and Sarawak have their own departments.
At a glance
Permits
ImmigrationThe Immigration Department handles the pass and permit for a foreign domestic worker.
Agencies and labour
JTKSM (and state departments)The Department of Labour Peninsular Malaysia licenses agencies; Sabah and Sarawak have their own departments.
Social security and medical
PERKESO and FOMEMAPERKESO covers the injury scheme; FOMEMA handles the mandatory medical screening.
Permits and passes sit with Immigration. Agency licensing and much of the employment framework in Peninsular Malaysia sit with the Department of Labour Peninsular Malaysia (JTKSM), which also maintains the public register you use to verify an agency. Social-security coverage sits with PERKESO, and the mandatory medical screening with FOMEMA.
Population figures used in the location guides come from the Department of Statistics Malaysia. Naming each authority is the point: when a figure matters, the authority that sets it is where to confirm it.
Region changes the source
Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah and Sarawak must not be treated as one identical process. Sabah and Sarawak administer non-resident workers through their own labour departments and ordinances, and Sarawak uses its own portal, so the right official source depends on where the worker will be employed.
Use this hub as a directory: identify the rule you need to confirm, go to the department that governs it for your region, and treat any figure quoted elsewhere as something to check there.
The rules and figures here follow official Malaysian sources as at the review date, and your own situation can differ. Check what applies to your own case with the Immigration Department of Malaysia for permits and passes, or the Department of Labour Peninsular Malaysia for agency licensing and employment terms, before you act on it.
Questions this page answers
Where do I confirm a permit requirement?
With the Immigration Department, which handles the pass and permit for a foreign domestic worker.
Where do I verify an agency licence?
On the JTKSM public register in Peninsular Malaysia; Sabah and Sarawak have their own labour departments.
Do Sabah and Sarawak use the same sources as the Peninsula?
No. They have their own labour departments and ordinances, so confirm the process with the source for the region of employment.
What the PL(KS)/VP(TE) pass itself actually is, how long it lasts, and the specific conditions attached to holding it — not the wider permit sequence, which has its own guide.
The pre-arrival visa that starts the whole process — what it actually is, who issues it, and why the general VDR categories on Immigration’s own site don’t apply to this specific case.
One checklist page pulling together an employer’s reporting, medical, pay, and Immigration duties toward a domestic employee — each already sourced on its own dedicated guide.
What Immigration and the standard employer guide actually require for her accommodation and meals — and the honest answer on whether a specific, measurable legal minimum exists.
The default rule is permission from the Immigration Department, not a private arrangement between two households — plus the one specific, named exception that doesn’t need the original employer’s consent.
The document checklist behind the Check-Out Memo, what it actually requires of an employer, and why ending the household arrangement isn’t the same as ending the immigration-side duty.
What has to be worked out and paid at the very end of a domestic helper’s employment — and why the usual monthly deduction ceiling doesn’t hold at that particular point.
What the Employment Act permits an employer to deduct in Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan — and why the food deduction it appears to allow is prohibited by the standard FDH contract.
Where a genuine concern about a domestic helper’s treatment can actually be raised — the real channels, honestly framed, rather than a single invented hotline.
The Immigration/JTKSM process and Employment Act framework this whole site describes by default — stated as its own dedicated regional page, the way Sabah and Sarawak each have theirs.
Sabah runs its own licensing system, its own portal, and its own penalty scale — separate from Peninsular Malaysia, not a regional variant of the same rules.
HAVEN is Sarawak’s own real, distinct system for hiring a domestic helper — with its own income thresholds, its own medical scheme, and a genuine 2025 rest-day parallel to Peninsular Malaysia.
Two rule changes matter most for households employing a domestic helper in 2026: a phased social-security contribution and a much higher penalty under the Employment Act. Here is what moved and what to confirm.
FOMEMA is the mandatory medical screening a foreign domestic worker must pass to hold a permit. Here is what it is, roughly when it happens, and the practical points to confirm.
A domestic-helper permit is not a one-time document. It moves through approval, entry, the medical, issuance, annual renewal and eventually an orderly end — and Sabah and Sarawak differ.
The source country shapes the paperwork and process; it does not tell you whether an individual candidate is right for your household. Keep the two judgments separate.
A practical method for shortlisting and comparing more than one licensed agency side by side — what to check on each, and in what order — rather than judging the first conversation on its own.
What Employment Act 1955 actually says about notice and indemnity once she has told you she wants to leave, and where the paperwork after that decision is covered in full.
Official Domestic Helper Resources Malaysia
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