Advice urgently needed pls!

Yes, try to have direct dialogue with her previous employer to get a more transparent background first. I had a nasty one who also claimed losing money before starting the job. After she claimed where she lost the money, and I just suggested maybe calling the police to help, she stopped talking more about the "lost" over the phone. Suddenly,15 minutes later, she messaged me the money was found. Joke and experience to share. At last, that helper broke contract suddenly then the case was reported to Labour Department as active case monitoring her next contract and entry. One who want to develop relationship, one has to develop with effort first. No pay (effort), no gain. Same applied on us as employee to our employer.

I suggest you call the HK Labor Dept to ask about any compensation to terminate her agreement prior to even starting. When is the new contract supposed to begin? Is there a 1 month lag that can count as 1 month's notice? Either way, this situation isn't showing your new DH in a good light. Either she is trying to get money out of you or she is not a very careful person as to have lost quite a lot of money (a plane ticket is a lot of money relative to DH salary!) I assume there is no outrage/mention in her call that she had been robbed, etc, as opposed to "just lost the money" - which would then make me feel like this is more of a unlucky situation for her. Have you asked the advice of the agency? They may be able to roll over what you have paid already to process papers for another helper - minus any fees that they need to pay of course. If she cannot find or come up with the money to exit and return to Hong Kong - what does she intend to do? It seems she needs to leave HK no matter what, otherwise she is illegally remaining in HK. Therefore, it seems she must come up with some solution herself to purchase a plane ticket.

A round trip ticket to Manila can be as cheap as HKD 800-900 (on AirAsia) But right now it is more than that, since there is high travel demand at Christmas I suggest you be sympathetic, but firm, and not foolish. How can she expect anything from you, when she hasn't even begun to work for you yet. Did you speak to her prior employer?

recruithrsc I think you are right to be cautious. After all helpers are just strangers whom you don't know at all, cannot verify any credentials and then you throw open your doors and welcome them in. Especially when she works out you are sensitive to her needs/possible desperate for a helper...she will employ whatever tactics to discourage you from calling her ex employer. There are both sides to the story, perhaps her ex employer's wife was reprimanding her off as she did not do her work, was always on the phone ect Perhaps the ex employers' wife was a nasty person. Either way if you call her you'll be able to work that out in part. I will never employ someone with a terminated contract whom I cannot speak to the employer. But my first preference is a completed contract for obvious reasons. Also I carefully screen the call as often the 'employer' can be the employment agencies' Chinese clerk pretending to be an employer. It happened at least once that I personally knew of. I don't speak Chinese but my husband does. A second call to verify all the made up details of the 'employers'' details is all it took to unmask the fraud. Yes of course be suspicious. You don't know her at all and have only her word to go on. And she may have been let go for petty theft, not enough to generate a police report and even if she had a criminal record, how would you even find this out? As there are no databases we can access! In other types of employment e.g. school teachers, investment bank

First of all, thank you very much for all the advice! Funny thing is that when I interterviewed her, she made it quite clear (exact words she used were "I want to be honest with you ma'am") right from the beginning that she didnt have a good relationship with her last employer - she said the wife kept telling her off and shouting at her in public places and at home, that she felt that no respect was given to her - and I didnt even think about talking to her employers - EXTREMELY naiive of me I want to believe the good in people, but I can't help but getting a little suspicious of her. Whether she did or did not genuinely lose the money, I believe her sole purpose of calling me that day was to try get that money out from me. She could have just sorted it out on her own, and I dont even have to know about it - cos really, that is not my problem. When she called me, I asked her how she would come up with some money again - she said she would borrow from friends. And I didnt hear from her since. When we signed the contract last Wednesday, the agency estimated that the soonest she can officially start the contract would be end of Jan 2016 I will call labour deparment today to find out what my options are