???S re: Direct Hire - Timing, Medical, PDOS, etc

I am hiring a helper who was terminated in HK (but has worked her for 10 years), so she needs to return to the Philippines and wait for Immigration to approve her visa before she can return.


HK Immigration says it will take at least 4 weeks.


Once we get the visa stamp from Immigration, we are supposed to send it to the Phils along with plane ticket the verified employment contract and an endorsement letter to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).


Our helper is then supposed to go to the local POEA for processing as well as to undergo a medical exam.


Then the helper is supposed to attend a Pre-Orientation Departure Seminar (PDOS) conducted by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) before she can get her Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC).


We are actually pretty desperate to have our new helper start ASAP, so I was wondering how many days we should budget (ie how many vacation days we need to ration) for our new helper to get back to HK after we send her the package with the ticket, contract, visa etc?


Can she do the medical before she gets the package?


Does she still have to attend the PDOS given that she has been in HK for so long already?


How much does it cost for the medical exam? Does she need to await the results before she can request her OEC? Will we get a copy of the results? Should I still request that my helper undergo a medical when she returns to HK?


Many thank!

We had a similar situation about 7 years ago when we signed a contract with a helper who had been terminated by her most recent employer after being in HK for 19 years.


She did a medical in hk on the same day she flew to the Phls and we were told that it would take about 6 to 8 weeks to process her contract. However, after about 5 weeks we were notified by post that her visa was denied because she was Hep B positive (v. commmon in Asia).


There was nothing we could do about this ruling. There was also a lot of hassle getting her possessions back to her (she had moved them into our apartment before she left as we had both assumed that approval would be a formality). It isn't....

she can do the medical before getting her visa(in php)... and the PDOS... it takes less than one day for her to get her papers processed by the local POEA... takes about 4-6 weeks to get her visa.. i reckon if she does her pdos and medical as soon as she arrives in the phils, then she can leave the day after she recieves her visa...