Employment & HR
Engaging freelancers and remote workers
A freelancer with a permit is a supplier. A freelancer without one, working exclusively for you under your direction, is an employee you have not sponsored — and the exposure is entirely yours.
The entitlement
What the law gives, regardless of contract.
UAE companies routinely engage freelancers, and lawfully so where the individual holds a freelance or self-employment permit, or a trade licence, covering the work being done. In that case the relationship is commercial: they invoice, you pay, and there is no employment. Where the individual holds no permit — a spouse on a dependant visa, someone on a visit visa, a person whose employment visa is sponsored elsewhere — the arrangement is not a supply of services. It is unlicensed work, and the company engaging it carries the exposure.
Beyond the permit question, the shape of the relationship matters. Where an individual works exclusively for one company, under its direction, on its premises or systems, to its hours, with no other clients and no business of their own, the substance is employment however the invoices are labelled. That matters practically at the point it breaks down: a person in that position who claims unpaid dues at MOHRE will argue they were an employee, and the tribunal will look at the substance. Gratuity, notice and leave entitlements for the whole period then become live, and none of them were budgeted.
The numbers
- Lawful basis
- A freelance permit, self-employment permit or trade licence
- Not lawful
- Dependants, visit visa holders and other companies' employees
- Substance test
- Direction, exclusivity, hours, premises, other clients
- Exposure
- Sits with the engaging company
- If reclassified
- Gratuity, notice and leave apply for the whole period
- Alternative
- A part-time or temporary work permit
What it costs
In practice
How this is actually administered.
- Ask to see the permit or licenceNot a promise that one exists. It should cover the activity you are paying for.
- Check the activity matchesA design freelance permit does not cover software development, and the mismatch is visible on the invoice.
- Keep the relationship genuinely commercialDeliverables rather than hours, their own equipment where practical, other clients, no line management.
- Contract properlyA services agreement with scope, deliverables and IP assignment. UAE law does not assign IP to a client by default.
- If it is really employment, make it employmentA part-time or temporary permit is cheaper than a reclassification argument.
Related
Questions
No. The individual needs a freelance or self-employment permit or a trade licence covering the work. The engaging company carries the exposure.
Not without their own permit. A dependant residence does not authorise work, and a freelance permit can be obtained on a dependant visa.
Substance: exclusivity, direction and control, fixed hours, your premises and systems, and no other clients.
Not automatically the client. Assign it expressly in the contract.
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