[Neha]

ok thanks for letting me know that

[peainpod]

We have decided to share the levy savings with our helper.

In our situation, the next levy installment will be in late September so we will be terminating/rehiring our helper at that time. As I explained to our helper, she will be making HK$100 on the new contract permanently, and we are happy to give her an additional $200 for the period of the levy suspension. I have explained to her that if/when the levy resumes, we will no longer be giving her the HK$200 extra (so her expectation is that it is only an interim bonus and not something permanent).

Based on what I've read in the papers, it seems that the levy suspension can be maximized to almost 4 years, if you decide to go through the whole early terminate/rehire exercise again before the end of the 2 years (i.e. renew now and then renew again in June/July 2010.)

I'm anticipating that there will be a bunch of fees involved in the terminate/rehire process so for the first month of levy suspension, we will be using the HK$400 to defer those costs.

Personally I believe that it should be up to the employer to do what they like with the levy. But for us, we are quite happy with our helper and thought that this seemed like a nice way to give her a bit of a bonus without it coming from our pockets.

[merichan]

Well, we just paid our last installment in July... so the cancellation of the levy will be for the renewal in January...


However, my helper told me that quite a lot of her friends were being terminated-rehired and that the queuing at immigration and consulate were endless.

[elodienyc]

Hi, I heard that the fees to rehire your helper are not more than HKD 500 (visa+paperwork)

[bbvv]

We paid our HKD2400 levy at the end of June and now considering terminating and renewing her contract. Ours is an Indonesian Helper, do we have to go via agency or can she renew via the immigration?

[Neha]

it should be the same for all DH u can probably check with the immigration

[AnpanBaby]

i've heard that unlike Philipino helpers, Indonesian helpers can only renew the contracts via the agent, hence the agent fees are part of the cost of renewing the contract if you so selected. Hope this helps.

[peainpod]

Originally Posted by bbvv

We paid our HKD2400 levy at the end of June and now considering terminating and renewing her contract. Ours is an Indonesian Helper, do we have to go via agency or can she renew via the immigration?

Hey Vivienne, you should wait until the time when your next levy installment is due (i.e. end Dec for you?) as you are already paid up until then anyway. There's no percentage in renewing earlier for you (since the govt won't be refunding levies that are already paid) and by then, the lines at Immig should be more manageable.

Not sure if it's dif with the Indonesian consulate, but I think our Filipino helper says she can do all the paperwork herself with the Philippine Consulate and HK Immig.