Interviewing a Housemaid or Nanny in Oman: Questions and Checks

Choosing someone to work in your home is a big decision. You want a person your children, or your parents, will be comfortable with. In Oman there is one more question to answer before any of that: can this person legally work for you?

This guide covers the legal checks first. Then it gives interview questions, the questions to avoid, and how probation works under Oman's domestic worker regulation, Ministerial Decision (MD) 574/2025.

Before you interview

Know your route. You need your own licence from the Ministry of Labour to employ a domestic worker (Article 8). There are two ways to hire:

• Someone already in Oman. Her work licence moves to you through Ministry of Labour e-service 286. Our guide Hiring a housemaid who is already in Oman explains each step.
• Someone from abroad. See How to hire a housemaid in Oman.

Write the job down first. Before the first call, decide:

• the main duties: housework, childcare, care for an older person, cooking or driving;
• the hours. MD 574/2025 caps the working day at 12 hours with at least 8 hours' rest; how breaks count is a question for legal counsel (Article 22);
• which day will be her weekly paid rest day (Article 23);
• live-in or live-out. If she lives out, you must give her free transport to and from work (Article 15);
• the monthly salary you are offering, and the start date.

Check the occupation fits the job. Her licence names an occupation, such as housemaid, nanny, private driver or home health assistant. You may not employ a worker in a different occupation from the one she is licensed for (Article 9). If childcare will be her main job, ask the Ministry of Labour (call centre 80077000) which occupation to use.

Start with a video or phone call. A short call tells you whether you can understand each other, and whether the basics line up, before anyone travels.

The legal checks

Make these checks before you agree anything.

1. Age 21 or over. Oman does not allow domestic workers under 21 (Article 6). Check her date of birth on her passport or residence card.
2. A residence card that is in date. Look at the expiry date on the card. Ask when her contract with her current employer ends.
3. Free to move to you. Ask whether her current employer agrees to the move, or whether her contract has already ended. When you apply on e-service 286, the request goes to her current employer to approve or reject. If her contract has ended and the employer does not respond, call the Ministry of Labour on 80077000.
4. Not working for someone else in the meantime. You may not employ a worker who is licensed to another employer (Article 9). The fine is 50 to 500 Omani rials for each violation (Article 39), and Labour Law penalties may also apply.
5. No open work abandonment report. If an employer has registered a report that she left work, she cannot move to a new employer while it stands. A worker can object to a report (Ministry of Labour e-service 233). If one exists, ask her about it calmly, and wait until it is resolved.
6. Her embassy's rules. Some embassies have their own steps when a worker changes employer. For example, as at September 2026, the Embassy of India says the new employer of an Indian housemaid must complete its eMigrate procedures. Ask her, or the embassy.
7. See documents, don't keep them. Look at her passport and residence card. After hiring, you must keep copies in her employee file (Article 17). You may not keep the originals without her written agreement (Article 5).

Optional: a police certificate. The Royal Oman Police issue a non-conviction certificate. Foreign residents in Oman apply for it themselves through the ROP mobile app, and the fee for resident expatriates is OMR 20. You cannot request it for her. If you would like one, ask her to request it and share it, and offer to pay the fee.

You do not need to ask about her health. A worker must be medically fit to receive a work licence, and the medical check is part of the official process (Article 11).

Questions worth asking

Skip "how many years' experience?" on its own. Ask what those years looked like. Choose the questions that fit your home.

Her experience

• Tell me about your last job. What did a normal day look like?
• How long did you work there, and why are you looking for a new job now?
• What ages of children, or what kind of support for an older person, have you looked after?
• What was the hardest day you had at work, and what did you do?

Childcare (adapt to your children's ages)

• My child gets a fever in the afternoon and I am at work. What do you do?
• A toddler is having a tantrum in a shopping centre. How do you handle it?
• What does a good day look like for a child this age: meals, naps, play and screen time?
• How do you keep children safe near water, roads and the kitchen?

Care for an older parent

• What daily support have you given: help with walking, bathing, meals, or reminders to take medicines?
• My father falls while you are alone with him. What do you do?
• How do you keep someone company when they cannot go out much?

A household carer helps with daily living. She is not a nurse. If your parent needs nursing care, such as injections or wound care, ask their doctor about licensed home-care providers. Our guide Hiring a carer for an elderly parent explains the difference.

Household and practical

• What dishes do you cook? Can you cook for our family's needs, for example allergies?
• How do you organise cleaning, laundry and ironing across the week?
• Which languages do you speak, and how well?
• For drivers: which licence do you hold, and how long have you driven in Oman?

Expectations on both sides

• Do you prefer to live in or live out?
• Which rest day would you like?
• When would you like to take your annual leave? The minimum is 21 days a year (Article 25), and you agree the timing together.
• When does your current contract end? The rules require 2 months' notice when a contract will not be renewed (Article 21).
• What monthly salary are you looking for? Our salary guide explains how pay is set.

What not to ask

Keep the interview about the job. Do not ask about:

• religion or beliefs;
• health or medical history;
• pregnancy, or plans to have children;
• marital status or relationships;
• ethnic origin, skin colour or appearance.

Here is why:

• None of these tells you whether someone will do the job well.
• Oman's Personal Data Protection Law treats health data, ethnic origin and religious beliefs as sensitive personal data (Royal Decree 6/2022, Article 5).
• The Labour Law bans advertising or classifying workers by creed, colour or cost (Article 32).
• The medical side is already covered by the official permit process.

Do not choose between candidates by their photos. Ask about skills, experience and the languages she speaks.

Probation, not a trial day

In some countries, families ask a candidate to work a trial day before deciding. In Oman, that does not work. Until her licence has moved to you, she may not work for you, not even for one day (Articles 9 and 11).

What you can do instead:

• Meet in person. Invite her to your home. Include the child or parent she will care for. Show her the room she would live in, and explain your routine. Do not ask her to do any work.
• Show her the room. It must have good air flow, light and air conditioning, a good bed and a cupboard, and a clean, safe toilet (Article 14).
• Use probation. Once she starts under your licence, your contract can include a probation period of up to 15 days. Either of you can end the contract during probation with 7 days' notice. Probation can only be used once with the same employer, and it counts as time in service (Article 20).

After you agree, the contract must be written in Arabic, or come with an Arabic copy, and be registered with the Ministry of Labour. Our guide to Oman's domestic worker rules covers the contract in full.

Red flags on both sides

Warning signs for you

• Someone asks you to pay for the worker. Her current employer, an office or a middleman asks for money to let her move to you. The government fee for the transfer itself is OMR 5 (MD 602/2025). Paying for a person is legally dangerous: selling a person, or offering to sell one, for exploitation is a trafficking crime (Royal Decree 78/2025, Article 6). See Hiring a housemaid who is already in Oman.
• Someone else is advertising her. On OmanHousemaids, only workers may create their own profiles. Be careful with any profile or advert about a worker that someone else posted.
• Her status is unclear. She cannot say when her contract ends, or whether her employer agrees to the move. This may not mean she is dishonest. But slow down until it is clear.
• References you cannot reach. Call past employers yourself. A written reference is easy to type.

Warning signs she may see in you

Good candidates are choosing too. They notice an employer who won't agree a weekly rest day, has no proper room, wants to keep their passport, or asks for unpaid "trial" work. If she says a past employer kept her passport or took money from her, that is against the rules (Articles 5 and 7). It is a warning about that job, not a mark against her.

When you are ready, browse housemaid profiles, nanny profiles or carer profiles, or post a job and let workers contact you.