English speaking, full-time live out help

You can only get full time live out helpers if you employ Hk permanent residential permit holders. http://www.erb.org/smartliving/en/master_questionnaire.php A link to let you find out about local domestic hire. It is illegal with very big fines, to employ anybody on a Foreign Domestic helpers permit as live out.

It might be tough. As Susie1 says, the reason that live-out is comparatively rare is that HK regulations make a foreign domestic helper both easier and a rather good deal money-wise. Families without a helper typically have an older family member doing chores. Unless you are talking a couple of hours a day max (you do mention "full time") a live-out is almost always a bad deal. A live-in will work six days a week all day for 4350/month minimum including food allowance. Even if you manage to pay a live-out 50/hour (and from what I understand that's quite low) you're talking 10800 for 54 hours a week. Many (most?) FDH work more hours than that. It might also be hard to get a live-out to come all the way to Stanley but I am not sure. All that being said, you should look at the resource mentioned. I do recommend though, that you at least consider live-in. It is for better or for worse the typical HK arrangement.

Thank you both for your replies. I guess I just feel bad housing someone in such small living quarters. In the US, it would be considered almost inhumane to give such small living quarters as I've seen in the apartments in HK. We also like our privacy and having someone else walking around the house is just weird for us. Perhaps part-time help would fit best for our family? Is it possible to get part-time help for something like 4 hours per day, Monday-Friday, at a reasonable rate? I honestly don't know what I would do with live-in help all day for 6 days a week.

Hi afoley, Yes you can also get part-time local helpers from the gov. website I sent you already, there are a few FDH's who will 'tout' for part-time work but this is also highly illegal, and if anything goes wrong, you will not have a leg to stand on-so to speak. Somebody we knew had a part-time FDH who stole a few things from his property, couldn't even report it to the police-because he would have got into big trouble for hiring her in the first place.

Local part-timers will hardly speak good English. A part-time Phillippine domestic helper will charge HK$50-80 per hour (you both can agree on the fee). However, it means that she'll be working for you part-time, which is officially not allowed by the Immigration department. Some of my friends though do hire such part-time helpers on regular basis, and no one ever got caught. After having tried hiring part-time helpers in the past, I came to a conclusion that a full-time helper is the best option here in Hong Kong. If you can provide her even with a tiny room of her own, she'll be very happy to work for you because in my local friends' apartments the helpers sleep in the living room on a mattress or share a room with 2-3 other people (e.g., 2 kids and a grandma). Again, it takes time to adjust to some specifics of HK life. A vast number of families live in tiny apartments, which is also kind of unhealthy, but that's what it's like. My local friend told me that my apartment of 1,000 sf is large!!! 3 adults+2 kids...