The UAE employment visa, step by step

This is the order things happen in for a new employee on the UAE mainland, with the fees and the working days we see in practice. Free zones follow a similar path with their own authority instead of MOHRE.

Before you start: documents

Collect these the day the offer is accepted:

• Passport valid for at least six more months, and a recent photo on a white background.
• Degree certificate, attested, if the role is skilled. MOHRE groups jobs into skill levels, and the higher levels usually need an attested degree.
• Current visa cancellation, if the person is already in the UAE on another employer’s visa.

Foreign documents need the full attestation chain: authentication in the home country, legalisation at the UAE embassy there, then attestation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the UAE, which costs about AED 150. In our experience, depending on the country, this alone can take two to six weeks. Start it first.

Step 1: offer letter

The employer issues a MOHRE offer letter in Arabic and English, setting out the job title, salary split and contract terms. The employee signs it. The offer letter must match what goes into the final contract, so get the job title and the basic salary right now.

Step 2: work permit

MOHRE approves the work permit, in our experience usually in one to five working days. The fee depends on the employer’s establishment category:

Add a AED 50 application fee, and service centre charges of up to AED 72 per transaction if you go through a Tasheel centre. The employer also buys worker protection insurance, AED 137.50 per skilled worker for two years, instead of a AED 3,000 bank guarantee per worker.

Step 3: entry permit or change of status

If the employee is abroad, an employment entry permit lets them travel. It is valid for 60 days. If they are already in the UAE, a change of status moves them onto the new visa without leaving the country, for about AED 500 extra.

Step 4: arrival

The employee lands and enters on the entry permit. From here the clock matters: the medical test and the biometrics should be booked for the first days.

Step 5: medical fitness test

Everyone aged 18 or over takes a medical fitness test.

• Dubai (DHA): AED 270 for the standard service with a result in 24 hours, AED 700 for VIP with a result in about six hours.
• Northern Emirates (EHS): AED 250 under Cabinet Resolution 4 of 2025.
• Abu Dhabi: we confirm the fee when we book.

Step 6: Emirates ID biometrics

The Emirates ID application is filed with the residence visa application, and the employee gives fingerprints and a photo at an Emirates ID service centre. The two-year Emirates ID costs AED 300 in ICP fees (AED 100 a year plus AED 100 for smart services), plus any service centre charges.

Step 7: residence visa and contract

Once the medical result is clear, the residence visa is issued for two years. In Dubai the GDRFA fee is AED 200 plus small knowledge and innovation fees. In the other emirates ICP charges AED 100 to apply, AED 100 per year of validity and AED 100 for smart services. The labour contract is registered with MOHRE and the employee can legally start work.

Health insurance has to be in place before the visa is issued. It is mandatory for every private sector employee in every emirate (Abu Dhabi since 2006, Dubai since 2014, the other five emirates since 1 January 2025) and the employer pays for it.

Step 8: after the visa

• Emirates ID card: printed and delivered, in our experience, about one to two weeks later. The employee does not need to wait for it to start.
• Bank account: banks ask for the visa, Emirates ID (or the application receipt) and a salary certificate.
• Unemployment insurance (ILOE): the employee subscribes, at AED 5 a month on a basic salary up to AED 16,000 and AED 10 above.
• Family visas: these can start now. See the visa cost calculator for the family.

What it adds up to

For a hire coming from abroad to a category 2 employer in Dubai, the fees above come to about AED 2,900, before health insurance. Already in the UAE, about AED 3,150. In Abu Dhabi or the Northern Emirates, about AED 3,050 to 3,100 from abroad. These totals are our estimates: typing charges vary.

In our experience, the government steps take about 8 to 23 working days from offer to visa for someone coming from abroad, and 7 to 18 for someone already here.

Common delays

• Attestation of degrees and marriage or birth certificates, by far the most common.
• Names spelt differently across passport, degree and offer letter. Fix them before filing.
• Medical results that need a retest, for example a shadow on the chest X-ray.
• Eid and national holidays, when government services slow down for several days.
• An old visa not cancelled by a previous employer.