UAE Work Permit and Labour Card Services

Work Permit, Contract, Visa and Emirates ID: What Each One Does

Employers and employees often use these terms interchangeably. They are separate documents, issued in a fixed order, and a gap in any one of them blocks the next.

Please note: free zone employees are usually processed through their free zone authority rather than MOHRE. We confirm the correct channel for your company before starting.

All 13 MOHRE Work Permit Types

MOHRE issues permits to establishments registered with it, and the type depends on the worker's situation, not only the job. Validity below is as published on the UAE Government portal.

Which Permit Applies? A Practical Decision Guide

You are hiring someone who lives abroad

Use the recruitment permit. The entry permit follows, then medical fitness, Emirates ID biometrics and visa stamping. This is the route with the most stages, so plan the start date around it.

The candidate is already working for another UAE company

Use the transfer permit. The previous employer's labour and immigration files must be closed correctly first; an open cancellation on either side is the usual cause of delay. See our visa cancellation service.

Ask how the last job ended. A worker who left the UAE during probation without the required notice, or left work for an illegitimate reason before the contract ended, is refused a new work permit for one year unless an exemption applies. See our labour ban guide.

The candidate lives in the UAE on a spouse's or parent's visa

Use the permit for residents on family sponsorship. The company does not issue a residence visa: the person keeps their family residency and your establishment obtains the work permit. It is often the fastest and cheapest hire you can make.

The candidate holds a Golden Visa

Use the Golden Visa holder permit. Residency stays self-sponsored, so it survives a change of job, but the employment itself still has to be permitted. See Golden Visa services.

You need someone for a fixed project or a few hours a week

Use the mission permit for a project worker brought from abroad, the temporary permit for a limited assignment, or the part-time permit where hours or days are below full time.

The person will work for themselves

A freelance permit, usually alongside a residence route of its own.

What the Permit Costs: AED 250 to AED 3,450

The UAE Government portal states that issuing or renewing a work permit costs between AED 250 and AED 3,450. Where a company lands in that range depends on its MOHRE classification (category A, B or C), which reflects how the establishment performs against labour-market requirements such as compliance and workforce policies.

Two companies hiring the same accountant can therefore pay very different permit fees. Before quoting, we check your establishment's category so the budget is based on your file, not an average.

Please note: fees are set by MOHRE and other authorities and change from time to time. We confirm the live figure for your category before submission.

Timeline: The Work Bundle and What Still Slows Files Down

The UAE's Work Bundle merged the separate employment and residency journeys into a single platform. According to the UAE Government portal it brought five platforms into one, cut 15 steps and 16 documents down to 5 steps and 5 documents, reduced in-person visits from seven to two, and shortened processing from 30 working days to 5 working days where the bundle applies.

Five working days is achievable for a clean file. In practice these are the issues that push a permit well beyond it:

• The establishment has no available quota, or its establishment card has expired.
• The job title on the application does not match an activity on the trade licence.
• The job title requires an attested degree that the candidate has not yet had attested abroad.
• Unpaid fines or an open wage-protection issue on the company file.
• The candidate's previous employment was not cancelled on both the labour and immigration sides.
• Medical fitness or biometrics appointments are booked late in the entry permit's validity window.

For a stage-by-stage breakdown see our guide UAE work visa processing time.

How Long MOHRE Takes to Approve a Work Permit

MOHRE publishes a completion time on each of its service pages, and for the permit and contract transactions an employer uses most, it is the same figure. These are the ministry's own service times for a complete application, not estimates.

So the honest answer to "how long does a work permit take" is two working days at MOHRE and about five for the whole journey — provided the file is complete. Almost every delay a company experiences happens before submission or outside MOHRE altogether.

What MOHRE requires before the clock starts

• The establishment must hold a valid licence without any registered violations that suspend its operations.
• The application must be submitted by the establishment's authorised signatory.
• The job title must align with an activity on the trade licence.
• Skill level decides the certificate: MOHRE lists a bachelor's degree or higher for levels 1 and 2, a diploma or higher for levels 3 and 4, a high school certificate for level 5, and no certificate requirement for levels 6 to 9.
• Regulated professions need a licence from the competent authority first — the Ministry of Health for doctors, the Ministry of Education for teachers.

Please note: a published service time is the ministry's processing commitment for a complete application. It is not a guarantee, and it does not include the time your own documents take to attest, translate or arrive.

Work Permit Quota: How MOHRE Decides How Many You Can Hire

A company cannot apply for a work permit it has no quota for. Quota is the ceiling MOHRE sets on how many permits an establishment may hold, and it is the step that stops more hiring plans than any document does — usually because nobody checked it before the offer went out.

What this means in practice

• Check the quota before the offer, not after. An accepted candidate and no quota is the most expensive order to do this in.
• The profession has to match the activity. A job title that does not fit the licence is a quota and permit problem at the same time.
• Restrictions on the establishment block it. A licence with registered violations, or an establishment under restriction, does not get quota until that is cleared.
• Taq’eem is a cost and a dependency. The AED 406 report is required for electronic quota, so a hiring plan that depends on new quota depends on that report being current.

Quota sits alongside the establishment card as the two company-level things that quietly stop hiring. Both are tracked on the compliance calendar.

Documents PROXPAT Collects Before Applying

From the employee

From the company

Employer Obligations Once the Permit Is Issued

Getting the permit is the start of a compliance relationship, not the end of the task. The obligations below are where companies most often pick up penalties without realising.

• Pay through the Wage Protection System. Salaries for MOHRE-registered employees are expected to run through WPS on time; repeated failures affect the company's file.
• Keep the contract and the job aligned. A promotion or role change should be reflected in the permit and contract, not just internally.
• Renew before expiry. Most permits run for two years. Renewal should be started early enough that the residence visa does not lapse alongside it.
• Cancel properly when employment ends. Both the work permit and the residence visa must be closed. Leaving one open is the most common reason a former employee's next permit is refused.
• Never let someone start before the permit. Employing a person without a valid permit exposes the establishment to penalties and can block future applications.

For leave, overtime, notice and gratuity rules, see our UAE labour law guide for employers.

How PROXPAT Handles Work Permits

Companies with regular hiring can put this on a monthly PRO retainer; one-off hires are handled per service.