Employment & HR
The employment visa, step by step
Two years, sponsored by the employer, cancelled when the job ends. The job title on the permit matters more than most people realise — it decides skill level, and skill level decides what you can do next.
The entitlement
What the law gives, regardless of contract.
An employment residence visa is sponsored by the employing company and typically runs two years, renewable. The employer applies for a work permit from MOHRE — or the free zone's equivalent labour function — and then an entry permit or status change through immigration. The employee completes the medical fitness test and Emirates ID biometrics, the residence is stamped, and the employment contract is registered. The whole cost sits with the employer and cannot lawfully be deducted from wages.
The detail worth attending to is the job title recorded on the work permit. It determines the employee's MOHRE professional skill classification, and that classification has consequences that surface much later: skill levels one to three are what qualify a person for the five-year Green Visa, and they affect family sponsorship and the job exploration permit. A role described loosely at the permit stage — 'administrator' rather than 'operations manager' — can quietly close routes that the same person doing the same work would otherwise have. It is worth getting right at the start, because amending it later is a permit amendment rather than a correction.
The numbers
- Duration
- Typically 2 years, renewable; some free zones differ
- Sponsor
- The employing company
- Cost
- The employer's, and not deductible from wages
- Skill level
- Set by the job title on the permit — levels 1–3 matter later
- On resignation
- Cancelled, with a grace period
- Alternative
- The five-year Green Visa at AED 15,000/month with a degree
What it costs
In practice
How this is actually administered.
- Agree the job title deliberatelyIt sets the skill classification, which affects the Green Visa, family sponsorship and future permits.
- Sign the MOHRE job offerBefore the work permit application, and consistent with the contract that follows.
- Obtain the work permit and entry permitOr change status where the employee is already in the UAE.
- Complete medical, Emirates ID and stampingThe employee attends in person for the medical and biometrics.
- Register the contract and enrol in WPSThe registered contract is the one that governs, whatever else was agreed.
Related
Questions
Typically two years, renewable. Some free zones issue different terms.
No. Recruitment, permit and visa costs are the employer's and cannot be recovered from wages.
It is cancelled and a grace period begins. Moving to a new employer usually means a status change rather than leaving the country.
It sets your MOHRE skill classification, which determines eligibility for the five-year Green Visa and affects family sponsorship.
One question
How many people are on the payroll?
Then the order matters. Establishment card, then quota, then work permit, then entry permit, then medical, Emirates ID and contract registration. Skipping ahead to a signed offer letter before the quota exists is the usual way a start date slips by six weeks.
The first hire, in orderOr just ask usThis is the size where informal arrangements start costing money — salaries paid partly outside WPS, leave that was never tracked, gratuity nobody has accrued for. None of it is hard to fix now and all of it is expensive to fix at a MOHRE hearing.
What you are accruing without knowingOr just ask usThen Emiratisation quotas, WPS timing, ILOE subscriptions and health insurance renewals are running on separate calendars, and the penalty for each is levied per employee. Consolidating those dates is usually worth more than any single piece of advice.
What gets inspectedOr just ask us