Most hiring in the UAE means hiring expats. This guide walks through the work-visa process, the labour law that governs every contract, how end-of-service gratuity is calculated, payroll and insurance obligations, and the difference between mainland and free-zone employment.
An Employer of Record, or EOR, is a UAE-licensed company that becomes the legal employer of the people you want to hire. You select the candidate and direct their work; the EOR sponsors the visa under its own trade licence, issues a compliant employment contract, runs payroll through the Wage Protection System, provides mandatory insurance, accrues gratuity, and manages renewals and offboarding.
It matters that "Employer of Record" is not a separate legal category in UAE law. Providers operate under existing labour and visa-sponsorship frameworks, which is why the single most important thing to verify about any UAE EOR is that it genuinely holds a valid trade licence and visa quota. Three federal bodies sit behind every expat hire: MOHRE, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, which handles work permits, labour contracts, WPS and Emiratisation; GDRFA, which issues and stamps residence visas; and ICP, which handles Emirates ID and entry permits.
Only an entity holding a valid UAE trade licence, a MOHRE establishment card and visa allocation can legally sponsor and employ expats. Some providers instead employ staff under an ordinary licence and second them to clients, a widely used but legally grey approach. Engaging workers through an unlicensed supplier can expose the client to fines, so always confirm how, and under what licence, your people will actually be sponsored.
The standard route is an employer-sponsored work visa, valid for two years and renewable. The employer, or the EOR acting as employer, leads the process from start to finish. The typical sequence is:
When documents are in order, this realistically takes around two to four weeks; onboarding through an established EOR with existing quota is commonly 10 to 15 business days. The employer, as sponsor, carries responsibilities including cancelling the visa promptly when someone leaves, since overstays accrue daily fines.
Beyond the standard permit, the UAE offers the Green Visa, a five-year self-sponsored route for skilled professionals and freelancers; the Golden Visa, a five or ten-year residence with no sponsor for investors, top talent and high earners; freelance permits; and short-term mission permits for temporary assignments. The Golden Visa criteria for property and salary changed in 2024 and 2025, so any senior hire considering that route should confirm the current thresholds.
Private-sector employment is governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, in force since February 2022 and amended several times since, with a stricter penalty regime introduced in August 2024. The headline rules:
| Topic | Rule |
|---|---|
| Contract type | All contracts are fixed-term, maximum three years, renewable. Unlimited contracts were abolished. |
| Probation | Maximum six months. Employer gives 14 days' notice to terminate during probation; an employee leaving the country gives 14 days, or 30 days if moving to another UAE employer. |
| Working hours | 8 hours per day or 48 per week, reduced by 2 hours per day during Ramadan; at least one paid rest day per week. |
| Notice period | 30 to 90 days after probation, set in the contract, with full wage paid through the notice period. |
| Arbitrary dismissal | Protected. Compensation can reach up to three months' wage, on top of gratuity and other dues. |
| Minimum wage | No statutory figure, but wages must meet basic needs. |
Contracts must be written, registered with MOHRE and in Arabic, with bilingual versions common. The law recognises six work models, including full-time, part-time, remote and flexible arrangements.
Expats do not pay into a state pension. Instead, their long-service benefit is the end-of-service gratuity under Article 51. After at least one year of continuous service it is calculated on the last basic salary, excluding allowances:
The daily rate is basic salary divided by 30. So an employee on a basic salary of AED 10,000 accrues roughly AED 7,000 for each of the first five years. Gratuity must be paid within 14 days of the contract ending. This is exactly why the basic-versus-allowances split in the contract matters: a lower basic reduces gratuity, overtime and leave encashment, and courts may treat an artificially low basic as abusive.
Setting basic salary at around half of total pay or more keeps the structure defensible and the benefit fair. Treat accrued gratuity as a real liability that grows every month, not a cost that only appears when someone leaves.
Statutory leave is generous by global standards. The core entitlements:
| Leave type | Entitlement |
|---|---|
| Annual leave | 30 calendar days after one year; 2 days per month between six and twelve months |
| Sick leave | Up to 90 days after probation: first 15 at full pay, next 30 at half pay, final 45 unpaid |
| Maternity leave | 60 days: 45 at full pay and 15 at half pay, with possible extensions |
| Parental leave | 5 working days for either parent within six months of the birth |
| Overtime | Basic hourly rate plus 25%, or plus 50% for work between 10pm and 4am; capped at 2 hours per day |
Public holidays are paid, and work on a rest day or public holiday attracts a substitute day or a premium.
The UAE has no personal income tax, so an employee's gross salary is their net pay. Salaries must be paid through the Wage Protection System, the government's monitored payroll channel, via approved banks or exchange houses. New hires should be onboarded to WPS within 30 days, and late payment carries fines and can lead to work-permit suspension. The grace period for WPS payment is being tightened, so timely monthly runs are essential.
Corporate tax of 9% applies to business profits above AED 375,000, introduced in June 2023. This is a tax on the employer's profits, not on salaries, but it is relevant to permanent-establishment risk: using a UAE EOR reduces that risk because the worker is legally employed by the EOR's UAE entity, but it does not eliminate it. If a UAE-based hire habitually concludes contracts or runs core revenue-generating activity for the foreign company, a permanent establishment and corporate-tax exposure can still arise, and specialist advice is worth taking.
Two coverages are compulsory. First, health insurance has been mandatory nationwide since January 2025 as a condition of issuing or renewing a residence permit; the employer pays for it and cannot deduct the cost from salary. Second, the ILOE unemployment-insurance scheme requires a small employee-paid premium, AED 5 per month for basic salaries up to AED 16,000 and AED 10 above that, which pays up to 60% of basic salary for three months after involuntary job loss, provided the worker has subscribed for at least twelve months. Missing either can block visa issuance or trigger fines, so we keep both in place and current.
Mainland employment sits under MOHRE and federal law, with WPS mandatory and employees free to work across all seven emirates. Free zones issue permits through their own authorities and usually apply federal law with template variations, but a free-zone visa generally restricts work to that zone. For that reason, EORs typically place hires on the mainland for full work mobility.
Two financial centres are different again. The DIFC in Dubai and the ADGM in Abu Dhabi run their own common-law employment regimes and their own courts. The DIFC replaced traditional gratuity with the DEWS funded savings scheme, into which the employer contributes monthly. The ADGM retains an end-of-service payout that has been moving toward a savings model. These zones offer more contractual flexibility and are the right choice for some financial-services roles, but their rules should never be confused with mainland federal law.
On Emiratisation: quotas requiring a share of Emirati nationals apply only to mainland firms with 50 or more employees. Free zones, including the DIFC and ADGM, are exempt, so EOR expat hiring generally sits outside the quota.
For a small UAE headcount, per-employee EOR fees usually beat the cost and effort of an entity. Once the team is large, or you need to invoice and contract locally, setting up your own free-zone or mainland entity often becomes more economical. A common path is to start with an EOR and transition to an entity later.
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