A separate licensing system, not a variant
JTK Sabah’s own page states plainly that anyone employing a non-resident worker requires a Licence to Employ Non-Resident Workers under Section 118 — issued through eNORES, the Integrated Non-Resident Employee Management System, a live Sabah-specific portal. This isn’t the same office or system as Peninsular Malaysia’s Immigration/JTKSM process; it’s a separate administrative track under its own state ordinance.
The category itself is defined directly on JTK Sabah’s own page: a "Foreign Maid" is a person who works for a private residence for personal purposes, and not for any business or commercial activity — a definition worth having on hand for exactly what this specific licensing route covers.
Reporting, repatriation, and penalty — all with different figures than Peninsular Malaysia
Employers must report the employment of a non-resident worker to the Sabah Manpower Department within 14 days of it starting — a shorter window than the Peninsular Act 265 s.57A 30-day duty to report hiring. No parallel deadline for reporting when the employment ends was found on the same page, unlike Peninsular s.57B’s explicit 30-day termination-notification duty — this isn’t confirmed to work the same way, so don’t assume symmetry.
Repatriation is addressed directly: any non-resident employee required to leave Sabah under the Labour Ordinance is repatriated at the employer’s expense. The penalty for non-compliance with this chapter of the Ordinance is a fine of up to RM10,000, imprisonment of up to six months, or both — notably lower than the RM50,000 maximum figure under Peninsular Malaysia’s Act 265.
What’s unresolved — don’t assume an answer here
Whether a domestic employee in Sabah gets a statutory weekly rest day under Sabah’s own Labour Ordinance, particularly after a 2025 amendment package, wasn’t confirmed one way or the other. A secondary, unverified source claims domestic employees remain excluded even after the amendment; JTK Sabah’s own public FAQ page doesn’t address the question directly, and the amendment Act’s own text wasn’t independently located. Don’t assume Sabah mirrors Sarawak’s confirmed 2025 rest-day extension — check directly with JTK Sabah before relying on either answer.
Sabah’s minimum-wage order does explicitly exclude domestic service from its coverage, per JTK Sabah’s own FAQ — a different, confirmed point from the unresolved rest-day question.