UAE Employee visa guide

Ultimate employer’s guide to obtain UAE employment visa

UAE attracts and keeps on attracting many talents to work from across the globe. Being focusing on this for so many years, steps are built by the UAE government with the keen procedures to support the Emirates, business entities, and also the workforce being employed in UAE. We, at HRBluSky help you to know the process in detail. Here is the breakdown of the most important steps on acquiring the employment visa for their employees.

Obtaining an employment visa works in three ways, an employee can be hired from overseas, a candidate may be on a visit/tourist visa and being interviewed and the employee is shifting from one company to the other. In any of the above-mentioned ways, it is not so complicated to obtain the employment visa. Here, we have packed the complete 12 steps guide that helps any employers to get the employment visa for their employees.

Step 01 :

Filling out the E-Quota application

Step 02: 

Eligibility check for your firm/organization by TAQYEEM team

Step 03:

Processing of the detailed job offer

Step 04:

Obtaining the work permit application

Step 05:

Acquiring the labor card

Step 06:

Getting the insurance policy instead of bank guarantee

Step 07:

Paying the immigration fees

Step 08:

Clearing the medical tests

Step 09:

Attain the Emirates ID

Step 10:

Procuring the health insurance for employees

Step 11:

Labour contract to be submitted to Tas’heel

What is Tas’heel? 

Tas-heel is a government system held online with the motive to provide better government relationship management. This encourages the paperless transaction throughout the UAE & region to the Ministry of Human Resource and Emiratisation. Their physical centers across the UAE provide dozens of services including issuing of emirates ID, work permits, medical fitness applications and much more.

Step 1, 2 & 3: E-quota, eligibility check and offer letter framing

Any private companies that are in the mainland would require the Labour Establishment Card to apply for the employment visa. This can be obtained through the tas’heel centre. Documents that are required for e-quota application is the copy of trade license, tenancy contract, sponsor’s passport and e-signature card copy, immigration establishment card, electricity bill and the location map (streets and landmarks  nearby should be in Arabic), copy of sales or purchase bills (officials expect at least 10 -15 numbers). The Ministry of Labour will do the inspection to approve the employment visa quota in another two working days, if the inspection is successful. Here is the user guide on how to fill online e-quota application.

visa application form

The next step is issuing the job offer contract to the recruited employee. The work offer for the employee to work in the establishment for which the electronic quota has been approved, displaying the salary details including, basic pay, allowances, conditions and the validity of the offer, warning period, leave balances and most importantly type of the contract. Before issuing the application for the employee, the employer has to get the verification and approval from the Ministry of Human Resource and Emiratisation. The required documents to issue the job offer are employee passport valid for more than 6 months, signature specimen card, e-signature card and the salary details including the basic pay, allowances. The job offer should be in English, Arabic and employee/worker language.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation official website or the TAS-HEEL centers are the two service channels through which we can TAS-HEEL send the electronic copy to the TAQYEEM team. Based on the eligibility criteria of the organization, a team of two from TAQYEEM consists of a major evaluator and assistant evaluator to verify the establishment. After TAQYEEM reviewed the establishment, the approval or the rejection will be issued in 24 hours. The major reason for rejecting the job offer would be the violation of any of the labour law decrees.

Step 4, 5 & 6: Acquiring work permit, labour card and insurance

An advanced payroll management system can benefit any organization, regardless of size. However, human resource managers often find it challenging to identify necessary changes. Implementing arbitrary changes won’t help your organization. Instead, you should evaluate your processes, technology, and best practices to ensure effectiveness.

As SMEs in the UAE experience rapid growth, leveraging technology becomes essential for maintaining progress and avoiding mismanagement, which can result in penalties and reputational damage. With an advanced payroll management system, UAE entrepreneurs can significantly reduce their concerns about human resource management.

UAE labour card

New labour cards for the outsiders of GCC can be obtained through the service provided by the Ministry of any establishment. New permit and the new electronic contract issued will be valid for two years. Documents to be submitted to acquire the labour card are a color photograph with a white background, a copy of medical certificate, a copy of entry permission and three copies of employment contract. When the application meets the following terms and conditions such as the employee/worker should be medically fit, the establishment status should be a private one and the establishment should have an electronic signature card in it.

Any organization recruiting foreigners should pay a certain amount to the government as a bank guarantee. Recent amendment gave employers the privilege of acquiring insurance instead of submitting the bank guarantee for an employee. The UAE cabinet approved the ‘low cost insurance’ for employees as a replacement to the bank guarantee. This insurance policy covers the service benefits for employees, overtime allowances, return air ticket, vacation allowance and also the work injury cases.

Steps 7, 8 & 9: Paying immigration fees, medical screening and Emirates ID

Immigration fee can be paid at the typing centres. The e-Visa will be received within some hours. Time taken for approval depends on the employee nationality for the security check. Companies employed with five or more employees should submit their application for a visa through eDNRD online.

e DNRD

If the company doesn’t support eDNRD online, then you can pay through AMER business centre. Entry permit employment, renewal visa for staff, new stamping visa will be processed by eDNRD. All the applicants who have applied for visa should subject themselves to two communicable disease tests.

    Pulmonary tuberculosis (through X-ray) 

    HIV (through blood test)

    After clearing the above test employees will be granted ‘Health Fitness Certificate for Residence’ through which they can avail the medical services from government health authority. In the cabinet resolution passed in 2016, says that while renewing the resident visas should undergo TB screening.

      As one major step to get the visa process is obtaining the Emirates ID. This system is now a digital national identification system. Apart from getting the ID for the visa process, this ID help in making digital transactions in UAE, it is the centralized system which is integrated to passport and visa information. The expatriate residents may act as a sponsor to their family and children when meets the sponsorship requirements by the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA). Emirates ID is valid till 2 years.

        UAE ID card
        Step 10 & 11: Health insurance coverage and labour contract

        Health insurance covers to the extent for employers and also their dependents is determined by the salary offered to an employee, their skill and designation etc. In the emirates of Abu Dhabi, both the employers/sponsors are responsible for providing the health insurance coverage for employees and their families. In the emirates of Dubai, employers are required to get insurance cover for employees, similarly, sponsors are required to get insurance for resident dependents.

        health insurance

        Labour contract with detailing has to be submitted to TAS-HEEL as part of the work permit application. Following the results of the medical screening, a contract has to be submitted within 14 days of the period.

        employee contract

        We, at HRBluSky, knows all the process related to hiring an employee, getting them on-board with all the required processes, that’s why we provide you an integrated Human Resource Management Solution from visa services, payroll processing, medical benefits, business cards, employee devices, employee travel and even the training  requests.   Not  finding  what  you’re  looking  for?   We  couldn’t  state  all  our  features  in  a  single line,

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