Illustrative consultation table with an open document folder, a printed checklist and two cups — HOUSEHOLD BRIEF / STEPS NAMED / FEES ON REQUEST

Direct hire · Domestic helper agency · Singapore

You employ her.
We name the steps.

Matching and paperwork support for an employer who hires the helper directly, with the steps that stay yours and the risk you carry written down before anything is signed.

Send the household brief

Paths: New, transfer or re-employment
Shortlist: After a written household brief
Fee schedule: On request, in writing

New placementsTransfersRe-employmentWhy there is no catalogue of helpers ↓

The rules you are hiring under

You are the employer,
not a customer.

A live-in helper holds a work permit in her own name. On a direct hire the employment contract is with you, and no agency can carry that responsibility for you. This chapter states what stays yours, and what we will not do.

What the employer carries

The employment contract and the rest-day agreement, in writing and signed before she starts
The work permit application, filed in your name, and the In-Principle Approval issued to you
Insurance, the security bond and the levy, arranged in your name
Wages credited directly to her bank account, in full and on time, and never held on her behalf
The rest day, food, accommodation and medical care the terms provide for
Safe working conditions, including the window-cleaning rules MOM states
Repatriation inside the days the permit conditions state if the placement is cancelled early

Our introduction, stated as a rule

A helper we introduce is introduced to you, from the brief you wrote, and not circulated as a listing
If you engage her directly inside twelve months of that introduction without telling us, the placement fee in the written schedule falls due: the rule protects the introduction, not a person's freedom to change employer
If she later moves to another household, both households settle wages, leave and the flight before the handover date
Her decision to accept or decline an employer is hers. We hold no passport, no permit and no wage for anyone

What we will not do

No public catalogue of helpers, no browsable profiles, and no photographs of people
No biodata to anyone who is not a prospective employer, and only with her written consent
No fee, salary, loan or payment-mode figure in advertising: categories only, with the written schedule on request
No wording that presents a person as merchandise that can be bought, delivered quickly or replaced
No character adjectives. What a helper has done, where and for how long is evidence; a description of her temperament is not, and it is not published here
No claim about a helper that we cannot point to a document for

The agency’s licence number appears on every quotation and on every advertisement, as the licence conditions require. MOM’s advertising requirements for employment agencies were read on 18 September 2026, and they govern everything written here.

Three ways to engage us

Direct hire, full service,
or a renewal.

You employ her

Direct hire

We match from a written brief, send biodata on request with her consent, and name the paperwork we prepare. The permit, the insurance and the bond are filed in your name.

Enquire about a direct hire ↗We carry the file

Full service placement

We run the sourcing, the interviews, the applications and the settling-in steps, and we stay the first point of contact if the placement goes wrong.

Enquire about the full service ↗She stays

Re-employment

Your current helper stays on a new contract and a renewed permit. It is the direct route with the least paperwork, and the renewal should be filed before the permit expires.

Ask about re-employment ↗

Is direct hire even the right route

You employ her.
We run the brief.

The employment relationship is between you and the helper. What we provide is a scope of work: the brief, the matching, the introduction and the paperwork named in the written schedule. Where another government’s rule closes the direct route, we name the rule rather than quote around it.

Source-country rules change, so the position below is dated: it was read on 18 September 2026 from MOM’s own guidance and from an SG agency’s published guide.
Situation	Does direct hire work?	What decides it
Re-employing your current helper	Yes	You file the renewal in WP Online, before the permit expires rather than after.
A helper already in Singapore whose employment is ending	Yes, where her permit allows a transfer	The current employer’s written consent, and how much validity is left on the permit.
Bringing back a helper who worked for you before	Sometimes	The source country’s rules on re-deployment, which are not ours to waive.
A first-time hire from the Philippines	No, for an ordinary employer	DMW, formerly POEA, does not process a direct hire of a domestic worker for an employer who is not a licensed agency.
A first-time hire from Indonesia	No, for an ordinary employer	Deployment runs through licensed agencies under KP2MI’s system, and a household cannot take that place.
A first-time hire from Myanmar	No, for an ordinary employer	Deployment runs through licensed overseas employment agencies.

The household brief · ours
Flat type, who lives there, the work, the sleeping arrangement and the language you can work in, written down before anything else happens.
Matching against the brief · ours
Experience, languages and training measured against what you wrote, rather than against a list of preferences.
The introduction · ours, once
Biodata sent to you on request with her written consent. You run the interview, and no character reference is read aloud to you.
The permit application · yours
Filed in your name in WP Online, or by us where you engage the full service. The In-Principle Approval is issued to you as the employer.
Insurance, bond and levy · yours
Arranged in your name before the permit is issued. None of it is paid to us.
Contract, safety agreement, first week · yours
The contract is signed with her, the safety agreement before she starts, and the first-week checklist worked through.
The record you keep · yours
Contract, rest-day agreement, wage credits and the medical dates: the documents a later dispute is decided on.

Seven steps carry a direct hire and five of them are yours. Paying a placement fee to an introducer does not move the employer’s duty: the work permit still sits with you, the contract is still yours, and the levy, the bond and the wages are still your account. We would rather say that at the start than after the first wage dispute.

What the fee buys

Scope,
not a discount.

On a direct hire you pay us for a scope of work, not for a person and not for a permit. The columns below are the same job split two ways; the amounts sit in the written schedule, which is issued on request and carries the licence number.

The categories an employer carries in either tier, being the levy, the required insurance, the security bond, the statutory medical steps and her wages, are paid by you and not to us.

Illustrative concept pricing, not a quotation. No fee, salary, loan or payment-mode figure is advertised: the current schedule of fees, the refund terms and the replacement clause are provided in writing when you ask for them, which is what the advertising guidelines require of an employment agency. What moves the total: how many of the rows below you take with us, whether insurance, levy and bond fall due in the same month, and whether an early ending brings the replacement clause into play.
The work	Direct hire	Full service
Household brief and matching	Ours: the brief in writing, and candidates matched to it	Ours, and we arrange the interviews
Biodata to you	Sent on request, with her written consent	The same rule: on request, with consent
Work permit application and In-Principle Approval	Yours: filed in your name, in WP Online	Ours: filed in your name as employer
Insurance, security bond and levy	Yours: arranged in your name	Yours: we prepare and submit the applications
Contract, rest-day agreement and safety agreement	We supply the wording; you sign as employer	Ours, prepared and signed before she starts
If the placement goes wrong	No first-line mediation from us: the dispute goes to TADM or MOM and you answer first	We are the first point of contact, then the same channels
Repatriation if it is cancelled early	Your duty, inside the days the permit conditions state	Your duty stays yours; we run the paperwork and the flight sequence
A further search after an early ending	No window from us: a further search is a new engagement, priced as one	One counted search inside the stated window, with no further agency fee. The window runs from her employment start date, is longer where the employment ends at the helper’s initiative than where it ends at yours, and holds only if the conditions in the schedule are met.

Three scopes, in order

The brief, the introduction,
then your own filing.

Illustrative dining table in an ordinary family flat with a plain unmarked folder, a closed notebook, a cup of tea and a set of keys on a ring

Household brief · four-room flat, two adults and one toddler

Scope: the brief and the matching · one page, written before any shortlist

The brief decides everything after it, so it is written before anyone is introduced: the work, the hours, the sleeping arrangement and the language you can actually hold a conversation in.

What a brief has to name ↗

Flat type and household composition; the rooms, and whether there is a separate space for the helper; the duties split into daily, weekly and occasional; the rest day you can genuinely offer; and the language. Eldercare that involves lifting, night waking or medication is a different brief from general housework, and it is matched and priced separately. A household that re-engages inside twelve months stays on the same file rather than starting as a new case.

Illustrative blank manila folder open on a light oak table beside two face-down printed sheets and a cup of tea in morning daylight

Introduction · biodata on request, with consent

Scope: introduction and interview · one candidate at a time, on request

Biodata reaches you as a prospective employer and nobody else, with her written consent. It carries what she has done and where, and nothing about who she is.

What a biodata carries ↗

Name, nationality, languages, how long and where she worked, what the work was, food-handling preferences, and the training and medical records the process has produced. No photograph, no personality description, and no ranking against other helpers. Where a field has not been verified, the shortlist says so at the point you read it rather than after you ask.

Illustrative home desk beside a window with an open laptop showing a blank screen, a neat stack of blank papers, a pen, a tumbler and a bunch of house keys

Your filing · WP Online, in your name

Scope: the paperwork you hold · permit, insurance, bond, first week

The application goes in under your name and the In-Principle Approval comes back to you as the employer. We prepare what the schedule names as ours and hand the rest over ready to file.

What you hold at the end ↗

The In-Principle Approval in your name; the insurance policy and the security bond under your account; the declaration and safety agreements, signed; the permit card in her hand and not in yours; and a first-week checklist covering the rest day, the window-cleaning rules and the wage credit. An application filed by you is processed on the same terms as one filed by a licensed agency.

The same route at three stages: what the brief fixes, what the introduction hands over, and what stays on your side of the file. The figures we publish about our own work are in the chapter below this one.

What is checked, and what is not

Verified, and
described as verified.

Facts, not adjectives

Name, nationality, languages, the duration and content of previous employment, food-handling preferences, and the training and medical records the process produces. That is the whole of a biodata; nothing in it describes her temperament.

Every field on a biodata is one we can point to a document for.

Sent on request, with consent

Biodata goes to a prospective employer who asks for it, and only with her written consent. It is not published, not browsable, and carries no photograph. None of that depends on which route you take.

Biodata is never posted, and never sent to anyone but the household that asked for it.

The checks the law requires

The pre-employment medical examination, Entry Approval, the work permit, the safety agreement, and the six-monthly medical once she is employed. Where a check is not yet done, the shortlist says so instead of assuming it.

Where a check is not yet done, the shortlist says so at the point you read it.

One named contact

Your household is carried by one named consultant from the brief to deployment. The name is on the written schedule and on the emails, and it does not change mid-placement.

The consultant named on your schedule is the one who answers the phone.

The claim, bounded

We state what we verified and how we verified it, and the final decision to employ rests with you. A check we did not run is not described as run, and a reference is not converted into an endorsement of character.

The final decision to employ rests with you, and we say so on the first call rather than the last.

Our own figures. Placement volume and retention may be published where a fee, a salary and a payment mode may not.
What we publish about ourselves	Figure, on the record
Placements a year	About forty households
Still with the household at twelve months	Nine placements in ten
Helpers who moved to a second employer	One in eight, and most of those at the helper’s own request
Employers who hired directly	Four in ten, of whom most had employed a helper before
Training we provide	A three-hour employer orientation before the first week, a written first-week checklist, and a briefing on the rest-day and window-cleaning rules
What we do not publish	Nothing about a helper’s temperament, and no figure the advertising guidelines place out of bounds

The four jobs that stay with you.

Setting the terms
Pay, rest day, duties and the sleeping arrangement are yours to set, and they belong in writing before a shortlist is drawn up.
Filing in your own name
The permit, the insurance and the security bond are applied for as your employment rather than ours. We run the sequence; the application is yours.
Holding the employment
Salary paid directly to her, a rest day you can actually give, and the medical steps that fall due while she is employed.
The decision if it ends early
Measured against the terms stated before you signed, not against anything said in a conversation.

Before you file anything

What the permit
route allows.

Direct hire from overseas is usually closed, and the reason is another government's rule rather than ours. The Philippines' DMW, formerly POEA, does not issue the overseas employment certificate an ordinary employer would need. Indonesia routes deployment through licensed agencies under KP2MI's system. Myanmar deploys through licensed overseas employment agencies. Read the position as at 18 September 2026: these rules change, and we would rather state the version we read than stay silent about it.

Inside Singapore the route is open. A transfer needs the current employer's written consent through MOM's FDW eService, and the application should be filed at least thirty days before the permit expires. Both households receive the In-Principle Approval, and it carries the transfer date.

Who files what on a direct hire. This table is also the answer to what you are paying us for: the rows we keep are the rows named in the written schedule.
Step	Who does this	What you hold afterwards
Submit the work permit application	You, in WP Online, or we file it if you are on the full service	The In-Principle Approval in your name
Prepare for her arrival	You: insurance, the security bond, travel arrangements	The policy, the bond and the travel record
Have the permit issued and collect the card	You collect it; the fingerprints and photograph are hers	The permit card, carried by her
Employer orientation and the safety agreement	You attend and sign, where it applies	The signed safety agreement
Six-monthly medical examination	You arrange it; she attends	The medical date you have to keep
Post-placement checks and mediation	Us, on the full service. Nobody, on a direct hire	On a direct hire the dispute goes to TADM or MOM, and you answer first

Write the household brief

Flat type, who lives there, the work, the sleeping arrangement and the language you can work in. Output: a brief in writing that both sides keep.

Request the shortlist

Biodata is sent to you as a prospective employer, with her written consent. Output: the profiles you asked for and the fields they carry, never a catalogue.

Run the interviews

Video first, in person where that is possible. Ask about the work itself: what she did day to day, and what she found difficult. Output: what was agreed, written down.

File the permit in your name

The application goes in through WP Online and the In-Principle Approval is issued to you as employer. Output: the approval letter and the date it carries.

Insurance, bond and first week

Insurance and the security bond are arranged in your name, the safety agreement is signed before she starts, and the first-week checklist is worked through. Output: the employer's own record of the first week.

Wages and the rest day

Wages are credited to her account, in full and on time, and the rest day is the one the contract states. Output: the credit record, which is the first document anyone asks for in a dispute.

What you take on with no agency on the file: no first-line mediation, the repatriation duty inside the stated days, and no window to fall back on. If the placement ends in month two, you start again from the brief. That is the risk of the cheaper route, and it is the reason the full service exists.

On reviews

“They told us which steps stayed ours before we paid anything. We filed the permit ourselves, and nobody pretended that was a service.”

Direct hire · sample story

Sample story. Not a real customer review. Our licence record and any demerit points are published by MOM on the employment agencies directory, and the placement figures we publish about our own work are in the chapter on what is checked.

Before you commit

Where we turn
the file down.

When should we not use the direct route?

Three cases, and we would rather name them than take the file. A first-time employer with no referral network: the interviews, the medical and the settling-in steps land in one month and there is nobody to ask. A household needing specialised care, such as an infant, or an elderly parent with mobility needs or dementia, where the brief takes longer than the permit timeline allows. And any household that wants a replacement clause to lean on: the direct route does not carry a window, so an early ending means a new search from the brief.

What are we still paying you for if she is our employee?

Four things: writing the household brief, matching against it, sending biodata to you on request with her written consent, and preparing the paperwork the schedule names as ours. What we do not do on this route is carry the permit, the insurance or the bond, mediate a dispute, or run a replacement search. The two columns in the fee table are the whole scope, and the schedule states which rows you have taken.

Is she our employee, or a contractor?

She is an employee, and you are the employer. Her work permit is in her own name, the contract is between you and her, and the rest-day, safety and wage duties in it are yours. Treating her as an independent contractor would be a misdescription of the arrangement and a risk that falls on you, not on her.

Which countries can we hire from directly?

As at 18 September 2026, a first-time hire direct from the Philippines, Indonesia or Myanmar is not available to an ordinary household: each of those countries routes deployment through its own licensed system. Re-employing your current helper, and a transfer of a helper already in Singapore with permit validity left, are unaffected by that. Source-country rules change, including in the direction of becoming easier, so we state the date we read them.

How is her biodata handled?

It is sent to you as a prospective employer when you ask for it, and only with her written consent. It is not published, not searchable and not a profile with a photograph. The permitted fields are the factual ones: how long she worked, where, what the work was, her languages and her food-handling preferences. Nothing in it describes her temperament.

What happens if the placement ends early?

On a direct hire, our engagement ends with the introduction and the paperwork we prepared, so there is no window and a further search is a new engagement. On the full service the written schedule states the window, its start date, the different lengths depending on who ends the employment, the conditions that must hold and the cases where no further search is provided, including a material change to the role, conditions below what was agreed, or an ending caused by conduct that breaches the agreement.

Start with the household brief

Tell us the home.
We will name the steps.

Describe who lives there and what the work is. The written schedule, the amounts and the licence number follow when you ask for them.

Concept only. Nothing is sent or booked.

The three routes · What the fee covers · Ask a question