UK Visa for our Indonesian maid

We are spending Syawal in the UK again this year and we're bringing Nur along. Nur is our maid of 7 years and has been a faithful, reliable and trustworthy maid. We thought we'd reward her with this trip. She couldn't believe her ears when we told her.. haha.

And so after purchasing her ticket, we set out on Google to apply for her Visa. This is one of the moments you are truly grateful for being a Malaysian. You don't need a Visa! Well yes you do, but only the visa-on-arrival types, where you fill up a white card in the flight itself. I think it has something to do with us being a Commonwealth country or something.

For Indonesians however, it is a different story. And for an Indonesian who is employed under you, it is a whole different ball game altogether.

First we headed on to this website https://www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk/ and created an account.
Log in and start filling up the multiple pages of info. Fuh penat I tell you.
Apply under Domestic Worker in a Household category.
Fee: USD491.00 (I know)
Pay and set an appointment for submission.
Visa processing center is Manila. (Don't ask me why)

Note: We argued that she is on holiday with us and therefore wanted to apply for a General Tourist Visa (which is a lot cheaper). Unfortunately, the permit on her passport has `maid' written all over it. So nope. On to plan B, which is the above.

Prepare all the documents, and mind you they are a lot; not leaving a single sheet, or a single signature behind, because if you do, you are made to turn back and get it. We had a few misses, and therefore were turned away several times. Nangis! If they say 6 months bank statements, don't pandai-pandai nak buat 3 months punya. You will regret it. Big time.

And omg the documents were a pile! I kid you not.

• Passport
• One Photograph
• Evidence of your permission to be in the country where you are staying – the Work Permit
• Previous passports
• Evidence of marital status. If single – no documents required
• Evidence of current employment – letter from employer
• a.       Detailing salary
• b.      That employer is giving leave for you to take the holiday
• and that the employer is fully responsible for your wellbeing
• Work Agreement
• Bank statements or bank book
• Bank letter or bank certificates
• Payslips
• Details of travel documents – flight tickets. Hotel bookings. 
• Accommodation with letter from the person you will be staying with in UK. 

I told you!

The Visa Application Centre is only open 8am-2pm, so time is very, very limited. We live in Melaka so the number of running back and forth that we have to do... well let's just say it's not fun.

So we finally submitted everything on 30th May. The good thing about them checking thoroughly during submission and getting all documents perfectly done is because during processing,  the documents should speak for themselves. And they did.

And on 17 June, we received this email.

No word whether it was approved or not. So we waited some more.
And the very next day, we got a phone call asking us to collect the documents, with this email.

So today we went to collect the documents and syukur alhamdulillah! She is granted multiple entry to the UK for 6 months. Senyum sampai ke telinga cik kak kita.

Now all there is left is to count down to D-Day! Yay!