# Domestic Help and Confinement Care in Malaysia: The Options, and Who Actually Regulates Them

> Malaysian households hiring help split into two very differently regulated worlds: a live-in foreign domestic helper goes through a strict Immigration Department process with income thresholds and a one-per-household rule, while local part-time help and confinement nannies or centres largely operate on informal, employer-set terms with little dedicated regulation.

- Category: money-daily-life
- Language: en
- Status: published
- Updated: 2026-07-24
- Canonical: https://negaraku.md/en/money-daily-life/domestic-help-and-confinement-care

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A household hiring a live-in helper and a household booking a confinement centre for
a month after birth are doing two things that feel similar — bringing paid help into
the home — but they sit under almost opposite amounts of government oversight. One
runs through a national immigration process with income thresholds and a strict
one-per-household cap. The other, in most of the country, is licensed the same way
as a hair salon.

## Live-in foreign domestic helpers: a controlled, income-gated process

A **foreign domestic helper (FDH)** — a live-in maid — can only be hired through
Malaysia's formal immigration channel, never privately arranged on a tourist or
social visit pass. According to the Immigration Department of Malaysia's own FDH
page, helpers may only be sourced from a defined list of countries, and the
household must meet a minimum combined monthly income that varies by source
country. Applications go through the relevant state Immigration office (or the
Visa-With-Reference process), backed by an employment contract, medical report and
proof of income.

**One household is approved for one FDH at a time.** A second or third helper is
possible, but only at a substantially higher declared household income. Passport
retention isn't part of any legitimate arrangement either: holding a helper's
passport as a form of control is a serious offence under Malaysia's anti-trafficking
framework, separate from the immigration rules above.

The helper's own legal footing also differs from an ordinary employee's. Foreign
domestic helpers are covered by the **Employment Act 1955** as a distinct category —
guaranteed a weekly rest day like other workers, but without several of the Act's
other standard protections applying the same way they do to office or factory
staff. Rather than adapting a generic employment-contract template, start from the
Ministry of Human Resources' (JTKSM's) own guidelines for employers of foreign
domestic helpers.

## Local part-time help: no permit system, because none is required

If the need is a few hours of cleaning a week rather than a live-in arrangement,
and the person doing the work is a Malaysian citizen or permanent resident, none of
the FDH machinery above applies. Hiring local part-time help is an ordinary informal
employment arrangement — no Immigration approval, no source-country list, no
income test.

That absence of a dedicated system is also why the sector has so little written
oversight, and why recruitment agencies have recently pushed regulators to formally
recognise a "residential cleaner" category: many households would rather hire
hourly or daily help than take on a live-in arrangement, but current rules were
built around the live-in model and offer no clean legal path for a *foreign* worker
to do that kind of part-time work instead.

## Confinement care: nanny at home, or a centre — and neither is tightly licensed nationally

Malaysian postnatal confinement — the traditional 30-to-40-day care period after
birth — is arranged one of two ways: a **confinement nanny** (sometimes called a
*pui yuet*) working in the mother's own home, or a stay at a dedicated
**confinement centre**.

A confinement nanny in your home is engaged like any other domestic helper — the
"confinement" part is her specialised skill set (infant care, postnatal meals,
massage), not a separate hiring category. A confinement centre is different: it's
a commercial premises offering accommodation, meals and on-site care staff, and
nationally most such centres are licensed only as an ordinary business under the
local authority — not as a medical facility, and not under Malaysia's private
healthcare facilities legislation, per Bernama's reporting on the sector.

Selangor is a notable exception. The state introduced its own **Guideline for
Post-natal Care and Treatment Centres for Mothers and Babies**, effective 1 February
2022, under which local authorities issue the operating licence and centres must
also clear sign-off from the Fire and Rescue Department, the police, the Department
of Social Welfare, and — where actual health treatment is offered — the Ministry of
Health, per an official answer recorded in the Selangor State Legislative Assembly
(Dewan Negeri Selangor). Outside Selangor, that combination of checks isn't
uniformly required by law, so the scrutiny a given centre has actually gone through
can vary sharply by state or local authority — worth asking about directly rather
than assuming a polished-looking premises has cleared it.

## Common mistakes

- **Assuming one FDH approval quietly covers a second helper later** — expect a
  meaningfully higher income requirement for a second or third.
- **Using a generic employment contract for a foreign domestic helper** instead of
  starting from the Ministry of Human Resources' own employer guidance.
- **Assuming a confinement centre is medically regulated because it looks clinical**
  — outside Selangor's specific guideline, most are licensed as an ordinary
  business, not a care facility.
- **Hiring informal foreign part-time help off word-of-mouth**, which can leave
  both worker and household exposed given the lack of a legitimate part-time
  work-pass route.

## What's next

For the government body that runs the foreign domestic helper approval process, see
[Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia](/en/government/imigresen). For how the Employment Act
1955 treats different categories of worker in more depth, see
[Employment Act 1955](/en/law/employment-act-1955). And if a live-in helper's wages
mean setting up your first standing payment arrangement in Malaysia, see
[Opening a Bank Account in Malaysia](/en/money-daily-life/opening-bank-account).

## Sources

- Foreign Domestic Helper (FDH) — https://www.imi.gov.my/index.php/en/main-services/foreign-domestic-helper-fdh/ (Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia (Immigration Department of Malaysia))
- Guidelines and Tips for Employers of Foreign Domestic Helpers — https://jtksm.mohr.gov.my/sites/default/files/2022-12/Garis%20Panduan%20dan%20Tip%20Untuk%20Majikan%20Pekhidmat%20Domestik%20Asing_bi.pdf (Jabatan Tenaga Kerja Semenanjung Malaysia (JTKSM), Ministry of Human Resources)
- Employment Act 1955 (Act 265), reprint as at 1 January 2023 — https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputaktap/1741197_BI/Act%20265_FINAL_as%20at%201%20Jan%202023%20(30.3.23).pdf (Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia)
- Pusat Ibu dan Bayi (Confinement Centre) — https://dewan.selangor.gov.my/question/pusat-ibu-dan-bayi-confinement-centre/ (Dewan Negeri Selangor (Selangor State Legislative Assembly))
- Making Confinement Centres Safer For Mothers, Babies — https://bernama.com/en/news.php?id=1974407 (Bernama)
- Recruitment agencies moot legalising foreign home cleaners, says many Malaysians prefer privacy to live-in maids — https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2025/10/09/recruitment-agencies-moot-legalising-foreign-home-cleaners-says-many-malaysians-prefer-privacy-to-live-in-maids/194017 (Malay Mail)

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