Hiring a Maid in Bahrain

The most popular method of hiring a maid is hiring a part time maid to come in a few times a week to clean. The going rate for an hourly maid is around 1.500BD an hour. How many hours the maid stays depends on the size of your home and the condition it is kept in.

Many people also choose to sponsor a maid, either live-in or live-out to work for them. There are two ways in which a potential employer can do this. Firstly they can go through an agency. The agent will give you files with potential maids, but you will not, in most cases, have an opportunity to meet them face to face. The costs involved in hiring a maid from an agency include the agent’s fee (usually around 200-250BD), the costs of bringing the maid to Bahrain and the costs of the work permit. A maid that comes from an agency will require a salary of as little as 50BD a month. However the employer will be responsible for her housing, food, toiletries, clothing, internet and telephone charges.

The more popular method of sponsoring a maid is to hire one that already lives in Bahrain, who is looking for a new position. The easiest way of finding a maid is looking at supermarket notice boards, or by word of mouth. Recruiting a local maid allows a potential employer to interview her face-to-face and have a more thorough assessment of who they will employee. A locally recruited maid’s salary will be slightly higher than an agency maid, however the employer will not have to incur the additional fees.

Sponsoring a Maid

In order to sponsor a maid you must have a housemaid visa. In order to get a housemaid visa you need to meet the following criteria:

To get a housemaid visa you need to:

• Be married
• Request a no objection letter from your sponsor (employer).
• Please note that you need your sponsor's approval because the visa will be in the employer's name, so if you leave them for another employer, the visa has to be transferred in the housemaid's passport from the ex-employer to the new employer.
It costs around BD 150 to get the 2 year visa for a housemaid (there may be additional costs for insurance and additional documentation depending on where your housemaid is from).

Agreement of Employment from the Indian Embassy

Requirement for attestation of Employment Contract for HOUSEMAIDS

- The housemaid should not be below 30 years.
- Agreement Application Form (to be collected from the Embassy)
- NOC (visa)
- Work Permit issued by the Ministry of Labour in the name of the employer
- CPR copy of the employer
- Passport copy of the employer
- Passport copy of the employee
- If the employer himself/herself is an employee of some company/firm/organization, he/she should be      drawing a minimum salary of BD.1,000 per month (Please attach Salary slip along with bank statement  for the last three months).
- If the employer is a businessman, copy of the CR and also the latest bank statement.
- Bank guarantee Certificate of US $ 2,500 from any national bank in Bahrain. This amount will be made       available to the employer after the departure of the employee and also after getting a statement from her,   prior to her departure from Bahrain, stating that she has been paid her salary and that she has not been     harassed in any way. The employee should come to the Embassy and give the statement in the                   presence of an Embassy official.
- A mobile phone with SIM card, at the cost of the employer should be given to the housemaid and other       domestic employees.

Click here for more information from the Indian Embassy in Bahrain.