UAE Immigration Services

A work permit comes from MoHRE and gives someone the right to work for a specific employer. A residence visa comes from GDRFA or ICP and gives them the right to live here. Most employees need both, and they run through two separate systems at the same time, not one after the other.

Yes, and there is no getting around it. Mainland companies actually need two things
open before anyone can be sponsored: a GDRFA or ICP immigration card and a
separate MoHRE labour file. Skip either one and a work permit or visa application
simply has nowhere to go.

There is no flat number, your visa quota depends on your office size, your business
activity and your licence type. Once you hit your current limit, you can apply for an
increase, usually by expanding your registered office.

Yes, and this trips a lot of people up. The Golden Visa covers residency, not the right
to work. So if you hire someone who already holds one, you still have to issue them a
normal MoHRE work permit before their first day. Their visa being separate from their
employer does not change that.

There is usually a short grace period, but treat it as a safety net, not a plan. Both
employer and employee are exposed to fines once you are outside it, and renewals
should start well ahead of the expiry date since processing time alone can eat into
that window.

Often, yes. If someone is already in the UAE on a visa that allows it, we can switch
them straight to an employment visa without them flying out and back in. It depends
on their current visa category and entry permit conditions, which we check before
filing anything.

Most employment visas wrap up in 2 to 4 weeks, work permit to stamped visa,
assuming the establishment card is already active and the paperwork is right the first
time. When something drags on longer, it is almost always an establishment card
problem or a missing document, rarely the government turnaround itself.

Steep ones, and steeper than they used to be. Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2024
pushed the range from AED 50,000 to 200,000 up to AED 100,000 to 1,000,000 for
employment violations like this. Fake or fictitious employment carries its own
additional fines on top, charged per employee involved.

Yes. The establishment process looks a little different, free zone companies usually
go through their own free zone’s immigration department, but medical testing and
Emirates ID still run through the same federal systems either way. We handle both
mainland and free zone entities

Immigration Services is specifically the visa and work permit side: establishment cards, permits, Emirates ID, renewals. PRO Services covers everything else you deal with the government for, trade licence renewals, document attestation, the broader admin. Most of our clients end up using both, and we deliver them as one connected service rather than two separate ones.