If you are a business owner in the United Arab Emirates, we will help you, dear reader, on how to manage your business, deal with your employees, and employ them legally, which will lead to the success of your company and avoid legal accountability, thus increasing your profits as a result of taking these measures legally, which is consistent with the state. The first thing we would like to highlight for the success of your company is the work team that you will choose, and what are the methods of hiring and dealing with new employees.

Organizations were often based on a hierarchy, where each person in the company had a well-defined role and a set of clear responsibilities that he performed. In today’s business market, transactions have become more flexible, and the focus has become on building a linear hierarchy based on cooperation and joint teamwork. Recently, according to these changes in the structure of companies and institutions, they have greatly affected the team management process, and following the orders of the department head or direct manager is no longer acceptable to the young generation. Rather, the team leader today is viewed as a “facilitator” more than a leader who issues orders and divides tasks among employees.

Steps to transfer employee sponsorship to your company

There are two stages that you will go through, dear investor, to complete the procedures for sponsoring the employee for the   new company, and they are:

First stage: Requesting a work permit and work card for the employee

At first, the company owner must apply to the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation to officially register his company by requesting to open a file and issue a card and establishment number for his license to be able to practice work and sponsor his employees. After the initial approval by the Ministry, the business owner submits a request to issue an electronic signature card for the company.

The Ministry sets an appointment to visit the aforementioned company’s facilities, and after ensuring that there are no violations, it issues an electronic signature card. The electronic signature card is considered a condition for allowing the employer to apply for work permits for his employees in the company.

But there are some documents that must be available, such as:

• Electronic signature card for the facility.
• A copy of the work permit.
• A copy of the employee’s passport, provided that it is valid for a minimum of six months.
• A colour photo of the employee who has been issued a work permit, provided that it has a white background.
• The employee’s qualifications according to the required job, provided that they are certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates.

There are exceptions for some specific professions in which a letter of approval must be obtained from the relevant authority, such as: doctor, pharmacist, nurse, teacher.

There are also some other terms and conditions that must be taken into consideration, such as:

• The Ministry requires that the employer provide a bank guarantee of 3,000 UAE dirhams for each employee, deposited into the Ministry’s account through any of the approved banks in the country.
• The employee must not have any other work permit or work card with any other company.
• The employee must be at least eighteen years old.
• The work assigned to the employee must be consistent with the company’s activity.

The following are also things that must be known and paid attention to:

• Paying the guarantee amount is a condition that must be implemented by the company owner and can be retrieved when the employee’s services end or the company’s currency card is cancelled.
• The work permit issued by the Ministry is valid for 60 days, and the employer must pay the worker’s approval fees and the bank guarantee within 60 days, i.e. the validity period of the work permit.
• In the event of delay in payment within the specified period, the permit will be automatically cancelled, and the company must submit another application again if it wishes to complete the transaction.

The number of employees also depends on the quota approved by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation in the United Arab Emirates. The Ministry decides the number based on the area of ​​the work facilities, the legal entity of the company, the projects undertaken by the company and its requirements, according to the evidence provided by the company owner to the Ministry. The number included in the quota can be changed based on a request from the company owner, which requires the approval of the Ministry.

The second stage: comes after requesting a work permit and a work card for the employee.

Within the two-month period issued by the Ministry, the employer must have the employee complete the medical fitness examination, and request the issuance of an ID card, from the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship, Customs and Ports Security, and obtain a work card from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation in the country.

One of the common questions in this field is whether an employee can start work based on the preliminary approval he obtained from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation?

The answer to this question is a categorical no, as the employee cannot start working in the company unless he obtains a residence visa in the United Arab Emirates, which is stamped in his passport by the General Administration of Residency and Foreigners Affairs.

It is worth noting that the costs of issuing visas and transferring residency are borne by the employer, and employers are not permitted to deduct any fees or amounts from the employee’s salary for any expenses related to issuing the visa and sponsorship.

When granting a work permit to an employee, the Ministry takes into consideration several important matters, including:

• The worker must have entered the country legally and meet all the residency requirements in force in the country.
• The worker must have the professional competence or educational qualifications required by the state.

 Main parties concerned with employee sponsorship with the employer in companies, such as:

1. Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship, Customs and Ports Security.
2. General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai.
3. Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.

The company owner who wishes to bring in a foreign worker from outside the country under a work permit must meet the following conditions:

• Signing the job offer electronically within the company, and sending it to the worker, or to the relevant employment agency, for the worker to review and express his approval of it, either by signature or fingerprint.
• Submitting the employee’s papers to the Ministry of Labor in the country to request the “quota.”
• Print the job offer that the company will present to the worker, which contains a comprehensive and detailed description of the rights and duties of each party, through the “Tas’heel” service centers. Provided that the job offer is in Arabic and English, in addition to a third language that the worker understands according to his nationality.