The Hong Kong government has announced new rules to make it easier for the city's 250,000 foreign live-in maids to renew their visas, an Immigration Department spokesman said Tuesday, dpa reported.
From July 12, maids can renew their visas by post or online rather than queueing up at Immigration Department centres which handle between 5,000 and 6,000 applications from maids every month.
The number of supporting documents needed has also been cut and the time limit for renewal applications to be lodged has been extended from four to eight weeks, the spokesman said.
The moves are aimed at streamlining the visa process for maids, who currently have to take time off work and negotiate bureaucratic hurdles to renew their visas, which usually are valid for two years.
Hong Kong is home to around 250,000 live-in maids mostly from Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, who receive a government-set minimum wage of around 450 US dollars a month.