The offer came in on a Tuesday — a hotel group in Dubai, a hospital in Abu Dhabi, a contractor in Sharjah — and underneath it, a message saying just send your documents.
Here is the thing almost nobody says first: in the UAE, you do not apply for your own employment visa. Your employer does. The Official Portal of the UAE Government says it plainly — "The employer must apply for the standard work visa."
Who actually applies for a UAE employment visa
The employer applies; you sign, produce documents and check.
The portal's sequence starts with your employer issuing an official work offer conforming to the standard employment contract adopted in the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, known as MoHRE. Everything else follows from that document.
Two authorities matter. Employment is MoHRE's: the Abu Dhabi Residents Office says the emirate's job market is regulated by MoHRE. Residency is a different desk — the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security, the ICP, issues residency permits, and in Dubai the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs handles residence visas.
The portal names three work visa categories: the standard work visa for government and private sector employees; the green visa, for skilled employees on self-sponsorship; and the domestic worker visa, for household helpers. This guide follows its private-sector route: the portal is clear that the labour law behind the offer and the contract below does not apply to "employees and workers of the federal government and local government entities". Hired by a government body? Ask which rules govern your contract. And if your employer sits inside a free zone rather than on the mainland, processing runs through that free zone's own authority — ask which, early.
One thing worth sitting with. You cannot make a UAE employment visa happen — no queue, no form, no fee that puts one in your hands. It exists only because an employer decided to file for a particular worker. So the work that moves you toward the Gulf is becoming the person an employer is willing to file for. Opportunity is granted at the end; it is built long before.
The order the paperwork happens in
A UAE employment visa takes six steps, in the order the UAE government portal describes them:
- The job offer — an official work offer conforming to the standard employment contract adopted in MoHRE.
- The contract, registered with the ministry.
- The work permit. The portal says, "Usually, it takes five calendar days to issue a new work permit" — that is the permit step alone, once a complete application is filed, not the time from offer to landing.
- Entry. The work permit "allows entry for two months until your employer finalises your residence permit."
- Post-arrival processing — the medical test, the Emirates ID.
- The residence permit, "valid for two years or one year depending on your contract." The same portal elsewhere calls the standard work visa valid for two years and renewable, so treat two years as the common case, not a guarantee.
Steps two through six are filed and paid for by somebody else. Step one is yours — and a salary typed wrong at step one is wrong at step six.
The documents your employer files — and the ones that are yours
Your employer files the permit application; you produce each personal document behind it. The application includes a colour photograph with a white background, a copy of the worker's passport valid for six months, authenticated academic qualifications if required, and a letter of approval from the competent entity if required. Not every role needs an attested diploma. Check your passport's expiry early — a renewal is slow.
Attestation costs time. The Abu Dhabi Residents Office publishes the requirement plainly: a degree held from outside the UAE "must get it certified from the UAE Embassy or consulate in your country and from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of your home country" — two attestations, so start early. Licensed professions add an exam, and the authority depends on your emirate: the UAE government portal says physicians, lab technicians and others "must pass examinations conducted by Ministry of Health and Prevention, or other local health authorities such as the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) or the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH)". Our guide to credential recognition abroad covers what employers ask to see.
A list that arrives in a Facebook group or a forwarded screenshot is not a requirement. The real list comes from the employer filing your permit and the ministry that registers it — ask for it in writing.
What it costs you, and what your pay actually rests on
Your entry visa, your travel, your medical on arrival and your residency permit are your employer's bill, by law. The UAE government portal states it directly: "UAE law requires your employer to pay the costs of the issuance of an entry visa and travel to the UAE, and the costs of post arrival processing requirements such as medical tests in the UAE, and the issuance of your residency permit."
When a recruiter asks for money to "secure" or "process" your UAE employment visa before a signed and verified contract exists, stop and check: that is a bill which was never yours, in the UAE and in our Saudi Arabia work visa guide alike.
The rule does not make going abroad free. The Philippine side has costs that genuinely are yours: contract verification at the Migrant Workers Office in Dubai is 40 AED, cash only, per contract, with an official receipt. Published fees change, so confirm the current amount before you go.
This guide prints no total for a two-year employment visa and no minimum salary, deliberately. MoHRE's fee schedules are revised, and we could not read the ministry's own published schedule the day we wrote this; nor could we verify a published general minimum wage for expatriate workers on a primary government source. We would rather say so than print a figure we cannot stand behind.
What governs your pay is the wage written into your MoHRE-registered employment contract — a version of your terms sitting with a government body rather than in an email. Job offers can be verified through MoHRE's eService or by calling 800 60 — given as a number you call from within the UAE, so if you are still in the Philippines, use the Philippine-side checks below. A number spoken by a recruiter is not a salary. A number in a verified contract is.
After you land: the medical, the Emirates ID, the residence permit
Three things follow your arrival on the work permit: a medical fitness test, an Emirates ID, then the residence permit. The UAE government portal says all foreign nationals must be "free of all forms of communicable diseases such as HIV and TB" to obtain a work or residence permit. Beyond that baseline, some occupations face extra screening for syphilis and hepatitis B — household work, childcare and nursery work, salons, beauty centres and health clubs are on every list we read. The lists then part: the portal adds food handlers and restaurant and cafe workers, the federal resolution adds workers in health facilities. If your job is either, ask the medical fitness centre that screens you — it decides what goes on your form.
Domestic workers are also given a pregnancy examination before the disease-free certificate is issued. If pregnancy is proven, the federal rules give the employer "the option to allow her to work for him or not, after acknowledging in writing knowledge of the examination result" — in writing, which makes it a question worth asking before you sign.
The federal medical-examination rules put tuberculosis at the centre of that first screening: the examination "shall be done for all new expatriates to the state", and old or active pulmonary TB means residency is not granted. At renewal, resident expatriates undergo TB screening, and someone with scars, active TB or drug-resistant TB "will be issued a conditional fitness certificate and be issued residence visa for one year" with treatment in the UAE. On first screening the position is stricter: the Abu Dhabi Residents Office puts it plainly — candidates testing positive for HIV or TB must depart the emirate.
Then the identity card: "It is mandatory for all UAE citizens and residents to apply for an Emirates ID," administered by the ICP, applied for through its website or an accredited typing centre, with biometrics at a service centre.
What your employment contract carries
A UAE employment contract carries a notice period, working hours, annual leave and end-of-service gratuity — the Abu Dhabi Residents Office publishes all four:
- Notice period — "Minimum 30 days and maximum 90 days."
- Working hours — "must not exceed eight hours per day or 48 hours per week, over a six-day work week."
- Annual leave — 30 calendar days.
- End-of-service gratuity — "Basic salary of 21 calendar days against each of the first five years of service; and basic salary of 30 calendar days against each subsequent year."
Note the word basic: gratuity accrues against basic salary, not your total package. The UAE government portal adds bounds that page does not. Gratuity needs at least one year of continuous service, and an employer may instead enrol you in the voluntary Savings Scheme, where fund contributions replace traditional gratuity while you are enrolled. The 30 days of leave is what a completed year unlocks — between six months and one year the portal puts the entitlement at two days for each month of service. And the eight-hour day is the norm rather than the rule: the portal says daily hours may increase or decrease for certain economic sectors or categories of worker. Ask which gratuity system yours runs on, and read the hours and leave clauses instead of assuming them. Probation terms vary and live in the contract clause — read it, and ask before you sign.
If your job is household work, the rules above are not yours
Household work sits under a different law. Domestic work in the UAE is governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 21 of 2023, amending Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2022, covering 19 named occupations — among them housemaid, cook, nanny and personal or family driver. Under it, recruitment offices are "not to demand or receive any commission or financial reward from the workers in exchange for employment, whether before or after commencement of work," and employers must provide appropriate accommodation, appropriate meals and clothing, and medical care or health insurance. Heading to a hotel, an office, a site or a hospital? That clause is not yours — the general rule above is, and our Middle East hospitality hiring boom piece is where that side of the market is going.
The Philippine side, which nobody else will do for you
Before you can leave legally, the Philippine side needs your contract verified and your Overseas Employment Certificate issued. The Migrant Workers Office is the Department of Migrant Workers' overseas operating arm, and MWO Dubai's jurisdiction is Dubai and the Northern Emirates; Abu Dhabi is served by a separate post, so if your job is in the capital, find the office covering your emirate.
Verification comes first; the OEC follows from it. But read the routes carefully, because most of what MWO Dubai publishes is written for workers who are already in the UAE. Its in-person contract verification serves OFWs travelling between the UAE and the Philippines, and its OEC routes run on returning-worker screens — of the free OFW Pass, the office's own page says plainly: "Currently used for Balik Manggawans (returning workers) in selected locations."
A first deployment out of the Philippines runs on a different track. MWO Dubai's hiring pages say employers "may hire through partnership with a legitimate and DMW licensed and accredited Philippine Recruitment Agencies (PRA)" — skilled workers through a DMW-licensed agency, domestic workers through an accredited Tadbeer centre and a licensed agency, and direct or name hire only under the exemptions in the DMW Rules and Regulations. An agency hire's job order is accredited on that side before anyone is deployed, which is why the checks below matter.
Before any of it, check the job is real. The Migrant Workers Office's own public notice directs workers to the Department of Migrant Workers' approved job orders at https://www.dmw.gov.ph/approved-job-orders. The DMW also publishes the list of licensed recruitment agencies, and running your agency's exact name against it is the cheapest check you can run. If you are still weighing the UAE against the other places hiring Filipinos this year, our country guide hub sets the same checks out country by country.
Two warnings worth more than any checklist
You cannot work on a visit visa. The UAE government's own FAQ answers it in one line: "No, you cannot work while on a visit or tourist visa. Working without proper visa status is illegal." The Abu Dhabi Residents Office adds the consequence — it "can lead to imprisonment, fines and/or deportation," and "the penalties apply to both the employer and the employee." An employer who tells you to fly in first and sort the paperwork later is putting that penalty on you too.
Be careful with an offer that lives only on social media. The Migrant Workers Office in Dubai issued a public notice on 11 May 2024: individuals and entities were using social media posts to promise Filipinos already in Dubai jobs located outside the UAE. Workers recruited that way, the notice said, "sometimes enter the country of employment illegally and are subjected to unfair labor conditions," and urged extreme caution with job offers posted on social media. A post that cannot show you a job order, a named employer and a contract is not an offer yet.
We cannot process your papers or screen your employer — only tell you what the law says and where the official checks live.
Where this leads, if you treat it as a career
The first contract is a rung, not a destination — and the UAE's own rules reward treating it that way. Look at the gratuity structure: 21 days a year for five years, then 30. That weights the later years under either system — an argument for building in one place rather than restarting every eighteen months. Attestation and licensing work the same way: an attested degree, and your profession's licence, are the credentials your next employer reads. Above the first contract there is a ladder: the Abu Dhabi Residents Office publishes a ten-year Golden Visa route for skilled professionals, with its own salary, qualification and MoHRE-classification thresholds — confirm the current criteria on that office's page. Not a promise that you will reach it; only that the climb is real and has published rungs.
So build for the second contract while preparing for the first: English that holds up in an interview, experience you can document rather than describe, attestation started early, the licence your profession requires. A degree gives you the foundation; this is the layer on top that turns a qualification into a hire. For how the UAE sits beside its neighbours, see our Middle East guide.
Before you sign: your checklist
- The offer conforms to MoHRE's standard contract and names the employer.
- The contract salary matches what you were told out loud.
- Hired through an agency? The job order is on the DMW's approved job orders list — a direct or name hire runs on the DMW's exemption route instead.
- The agency's exact name is on the DMW's licensed agency list.
- Nobody has asked for money before a signed, verified contract.
- Your passport is valid for six months; attestation is started if needed.
- You know which post verifies your contract, and you are entering on a work permit.
The Questions Filipinos Ask Us Most
How much does a 2-year UAE employment visa cost me? UAE law requires your employer to pay for your entry visa, your travel to the UAE, post-arrival processing such as your medical test, and the issuance of your residency permit. We print no total because we could not verify MoHRE's current fee schedule; the Philippine-side cost we can confirm is contract verification at the Migrant Workers Office in Dubai — 40 AED cash per contract, worth confirming before you go.
What are the employment requirements for a UAE work visa? An official job offer conforming to MoHRE's standard employment contract, that contract registered with the ministry, the work permit, entry within its two-month window, the medical test, the Emirates ID and the residence permit. Your employer files a white-background colour photograph, a passport copy valid for six months, and authenticated qualifications and an approval letter where required.
What is the minimum salary for Filipinos in Dubai? The wage that governs you is the one written into your MoHRE-registered employment contract. We could not verify a published general minimum wage for expatriate workers on a primary government source, so we print no figure — check the contract figure against what you were promised.
What are the new employment visa rules in the UAE for 2026? The route the UAE government publishes today is the one described here: employer-led work permit, two-month entry window, medical, Emirates ID, residence permit. We found no 2026 change to it we could date on a primary government source. Rules and fees change, so re-check the UAE government portal and MoHRE before your employer files.
Sources
Employment process and costs — UAE Government portal: https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/moving-to-the-uae/expatriates-working-in-the-uae/employment-of-expatriates-in-privately-held-companies
Work visa categories — UAE Government portal: https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/visa-and-emirates-id/residence-visas/residence-visa-for-working-in-the-uae
Visit visas — UAE Government portal: https://u.ae/en/Help/FAQs/jobs
Medical fitness — UAE Government portal: https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/health-and-fitness/health-conditions-for-uae-residence-visa
Emirates ID — UAE Government portal: https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/visa-and-emirates-id/emirates-id
Domestic workers — UAE Government portal: https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/jobs/Workplace-regulations/domestic-helpers
Preparing to work in Abu Dhabi — Abu Dhabi Residents Office: https://adro.gov.ae/Work-in-Abu-Dhabi/Employment-In-AbuDhabi/Preparing-To-Work-In-Abu-Dhabi
Employment rights — Abu Dhabi Residents Office: https://www.adro.gov.ae/Work-in-Abu-Dhabi/Employment-In-AbuDhabi/Employment-Rights
Golden Visa — Abu Dhabi Residents Office: https://www.adro.gov.ae/Visas/Types-of-Visas/Abu-Dhabi-Golden-Visa/Specialists
Employment law scope — UAE Government portal: https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/jobs/Sector-of-employment/employment-in-the-private-sector/employment-laws-and-regulations-in-the-private-sector
End-of-service benefits and the Savings Scheme — UAE Government portal: https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/jobs/Sector-of-employment/employment-in-the-private-sector/end-of-service-benefits-for-employees-in-the-private-sector
Preparing to work, professional licensing — UAE Government portal: https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/jobs/Sector-of-employment/employment-in-the-private-sector/preparing-to-work
Contract verification — Migrant Workers Office Dubai (DMW): https://mwodubai.org/individual-contract-verification/
Agency and direct hire — Migrant Workers Office Dubai (DMW): https://mwodubai.org/agency-hire-information/
Overseas Employment Certificate — Migrant Workers Office Dubai (DMW): https://mwodubai.org/how-to-apply-for-overseas-employment-certificate-oec/
Illegal recruitment notice, 11 May 2024 — Migrant Workers Office Dubai (DMW): https://mwodubai.org/announcements-and-notices/important-notice-to-the-public-beware-of-illegal-recruitment-human-trafficking-schemes-online/
Approved job orders — Department of Migrant Workers: https://www.dmw.gov.ph/approved-job-orders
Medical examination system, federal — UAE Government, Cabinet Resolution No. 7 of 2008 (as amended): https://uaelegislation.gov.ae/en/legislations/1584
Working hours and overtime — UAE Government portal: https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/jobs/Sector-of-employment/employment-in-the-private-sector/working-hours
Types of leaves and annual leave — UAE Government portal: https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/jobs/Sector-of-employment/employment-in-the-private-sector/Types-of-leaves
Direct hire information — Migrant Workers Office Dubai (DMW): https://mwodubai.org/direct-hire-information/