Need help..

Dear Mae,

In your condition, I would assume that your employer has not taken service of any manpower agency in the Philippines. In this manner, you may need to do all the paperworks by your self. Since you already have received documents with red  ribbon (as what they call it in Philippines), then you already have the Job offer Letter, Contract and a copy of your Employment Approval (EA we call it here). All of these documents should have already been certified by Maldives Immigration and attested by the Philippine Consular Office in Maldives (Yes, we do have now a satellite consular office here!). Marking of Maldives immigration shall be in the form of a Stamp, while Philippine consulate shall be in the form of a red ribbon.

Once you have this document at hand, you need to proceed to POEA office in Ortigas and proceed to the guard of the building and ask him about the que/line for "Direct Hire" employees. direct hire employees are people who had been hired by companies in the Maldives. You will be given a number and asked to proceed on the second floor of the building, "left wing" where there is a large room with plenty of chairs fronting a couple of glass counters. Your number will be called and you will be asked to present the documents received from Maldives, your original passport and all relevant documents (NSO birth, Education etc). After this they will give you a checklist that you need to complete, this will include a medical to be done on a POEA authorised clinic or hospital (one is beside POEA building itself! ) Once you have collected all the needed documents and done your medical, a list of fees shall be presented to you (nowadays the Pagi-Ibig and Philhealth are optional though I would suggest you take their membership into consideration), you will be booked for your PDOS (Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar) After PDOS, you will then be given a date when to collect your PDOS which shall be included on the documents you need to submit to the same room you went on the beginning. Here they will then prepare your OEC which you will have to collect on the specified date listed on the receipt.

Nowadays, fees being collected are as follows (not sure if still the same though);

1. OWWA Membership - $25
2. PDOS - Php400.00
3. Medical - Php350.00 (unless they ask you to do additional procedures, like dental or ECG or whatever, which they will always ask as if it is crucial to collect more money).
4. Processing Fee (OEC) - Php120.00
5. Philhealth (non-compulsary they say but important) - Php2,400 for one year coverage
6. Pag-Ibig - Minimum membership fee of Php100.00 per month (you can pay at least 6months if no budget already).

Hope this information helps!

Regards,

Macoy