Key takeaways
- MoHRE publishes the cancellation service as free of charge. Not discounted, not nominal — the published fee is none.
- 14 working days is the published completion time, and either party to the employment relationship may lodge it. You do not need your former employer.
- The domestic worker route is different: AED 115 outside Dubai, 3 working days, with a telephone call to both parties.
- The real cost is almost never the cancellation. It is the immigration fines that accrued while the situation was unresolved — AED 50 a day with no cap.
- A fixed price to “remove your case” is a warning sign, because nobody can price an outcome a ministry officer decides.
Two questions, and both have honest answers that differ sharply from what circulates.
The cost of the cancellation itself is published, and it is nothing. The time is published, and it is 14 working days. Everything expensive and uncertain about this situation sits somewhere else, and this guide is mostly about locating it.
What is actually published
MoHRE operates three distinct services here. Knowing which one fits your situation is most of the work, because their fees, timescales and conditions differ substantially.
Cancellation of an Absence from Work Complaint
The main route, for establishment workers.
| Field | Published position |
|---|---|
| Fees | None |
| Completion | 14 working days |
| Who may apply | One of the parties to the employment relationship |
| Target audience | Employers, employees |
| Process | An officer examines the request |
| Outcome | Communicated by SMS |
The third row is the one to read twice. Either side can lodge it. A worker whose former employer has stopped answering the phone is not stuck — the published service is open to them directly, at no cost.
This single fact contradicts the most damaging belief in this subject: that you need the employer’s cooperation, and therefore that you must pay whatever is asked to obtain it.
Withdrawal of an Absconding Report — Domestic Workers
| Field | Published position |
|---|---|
| Fees | AED 115 in all emirates except Dubai; in Dubai the service runs through GDRFA systems |
| Completion | 3 working days |
| Process | A telephone call is made to both parties |
| Residence visa | Accepted whether it is valid or not |
| On approval | The worker may cancel without referring to the employer, within a week |
Faster and cheaper than most people expect, and notably protective of the worker. The clause about the residence visa being accepted whether valid or not matters enormously: a domestic worker whose status lapsed while the report stood is not excluded from the remedy by that lapse.
Cancellation of a Work Permit for an Employee With a Labour Court Case
| Field | Published position |
|---|---|
| Fees | None |
| Completion | 14 working days |
| Who may apply | Employer, employee, or both |
| Key condition | No “Absence from Work” complaint against the employee |
Include it here because of that condition. This route is closed while a report stands, which means the sequence is fixed: clear the report first, then use this if a court matter requires it. Attempting them in the other order fails, repeatedly, and is the reason a great many files look unresolvable when they are merely out of order.
What is not published
Being honest about the gaps is more useful than filling them with guesses.
| Not published | What that means for you |
|---|---|
| The criteria the officer applies | Nobody can tell you your chances. Anyone who does is guessing |
| Any success rate | Statistics quoted to you are invented |
| What evidence is persuasive | Submit an honest, complete, documented account — that is the whole strategy |
| An appeal route on the service card | If refused, take advice rather than resubmitting the same thing |
| How long an examination really takes | 14 working days is the published estimate, not a guarantee |
It would be easy to write a confident paragraph about “what MoHRE looks for”. Plenty of pages do.
We will not, because the criteria are not published and an invented answer sends people to build a case around the wrong things. What is knowable is the published process: a request lodged by either party, examined by a competent officer, with the outcome sent by SMS. Build a truthful, evidenced account and lodge it. There is no key, and anyone selling one is selling access they do not have.
The part that actually matters: your account of what happened
MoHRE publishes no document list and no criteria for this service. What it publishes is that a competent officer examines the request. So the request is the work, and everything else is administration.
We cannot tell you what will persuade an officer, and we will not pretend to. What we can say is what a complete, coherent account contains — because an incomplete one is the version that fails on its own terms, regardless of the merits.
What a complete account covers
| Element | What it establishes |
|---|---|
| The employment, in dates | When it started, the role, the arrangement |
| What went wrong, in dates | The specific sequence — not a characterisation of the employer |
| Why you stopped attending | The heart of it. Illness, unpaid wages, a threat, a family emergency, being told not to return |
| What you did about it | Attempts to contact, a complaint lodged, advice sought. This is what separates an absence from a disappearance |
| Your position now | Where you are, what your status is, what you are asking for |
| The evidence | Anything that corroborates the above |
Evidence worth gathering
- The employment contract — MoHRE’s portal has a View Approved Contract lookup if you no longer hold a copy.
- Wage records. If salary was late or unpaid, the Wage Protection System record is visible to the ministry, and your account should be consistent with it.
- Any complaint you lodged — a MoHRE reference is powerful, because it shows you used the formal route rather than simply leaving.
- Messages and emails with the employer, particularly anything showing you tried to resolve matters or were told not to return.
- Medical documents, if illness or hospitalisation is part of the sequence.
- Travel records, if a family emergency took you out of the country.
- Anything showing the employer’s own position — a licence that lapsed, an establishment file that was not linked, permits that could not be issued.
The instinct is to write persuasively — to explain how unfairly you were treated and why the report should never have been filed. Resist it.
An officer examining a file needs to establish what happened and when. A dated sequence of events, each supported by a document where one exists, does that. A paragraph of grievance does not, and it makes the factual account harder to extract from the emotional one.
Dates, facts, documents. If the facts are on your side, they do the work. If they are not, no amount of framing will substitute.
The ministry can see the wage record, the contract, the establishment’s standing and the dates. An account that stretches beyond what those support is checkable, and the checking is not in your favour.
If part of the story is uncomfortable — you did leave without notice, you did not lodge a complaint at the time — say so and explain why. A candid account with an awkward passage in it reads as true. A flawless one that the records contradict reads as something else.
If the request is refused
MoHRE’s service card publishes no appeal route, which is not the same as saying none exists — it means the card does not describe one.
What we would suggest, honestly:
- Do not immediately resubmit the same request. If it was examined and refused, an identical submission is unlikely to produce a different result.
- Establish what changed or what was missing. The call centre on 600590000 operates 24/7, and asking is free.
- Consider whether new evidence exists that was not available the first time.
- Take advice at this point. A refusal is where the situation stops being purely administrative, and it is a reasonable moment to involve someone who does this professionally — or a lawyer, if a court matter is anywhere near it.
- Use Tawasul at 171.ae if you need a documented response from a federal entity.
What a refusal is not is the end. It is one outcome from one examination, and the underlying situation still has a resolution — it may simply be a different one from the one you first attempted.
The fines are usually the real cost
This is the section that changes people’s budgets.
The cancellation is free. What is not free is everything that accrued on the immigration side while the situation sat unresolved — and that is a different authority, a different system and a different bill.
| Element | Cost | Whose |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelling the absence complaint | Free | MoHRE |
| Withdrawing a domestic worker report | AED 115 outside Dubai | MoHRE / GDRFA |
| Overstay fines | AED 50 per day, no cap | ICP / residency authority |
| Emirates ID late renewal | AED 20 per day, capped at AED 1,000 | ICP |
| Residence cancellation, if needed | AED 50 application + AED 100 smart services | ICP |
| Status change, if staying | Category-dependent | Various |
| Exit fee, if leaving by land or sea | AED 30 | ICP |
| Your representative’s time | Whatever you agree | Private |
Look at where the weight sits. A case that has stood for a year carries roughly AED 18,250 in overstay fines against a cancellation that costs nothing. The report is the thing people focus on; the fines are the thing that actually empties the account.
GDRFA Dubai publishes a standing service — Exemption from fines for violators of Residence Law — through which you may ask a Fines Committee to waive or reduce a penalty.
The published fee to lodge it is AED 15.75 for the individuals category, terms and conditions are published as “None”, and the required documents are a passport copy and a letter stating the reasons for the violations and an inability to pay.
It is discretionary and no completion time is published, so nobody can promise you an outcome. But the widespread belief that fines can only be forgiven during an amnesty is simply untrue. Our guide on fine waivers and amnesty sets out what that letter should contain.
How long it really takes
The published number is 14 working days. The elapsed time is longer, and the difference is mostly preparation rather than processing.
| Stage | Realistic time |
|---|---|
| Establishing your position | A few days. Recorded dates, fines figure, permit status |
| Assembling documents and the account | Days to weeks, depending on what you can lay hands on |
| The cancellation itself | 14 working days published — roughly three calendar weeks |
| Fines: settling or applying for waiver | Payment completes in 2 days. A waiver application has no published timescale |
| The status transaction afterwards | Days to weeks, by category |
So a straightforward case, well prepared, is a matter of weeks. A case where the fines must go to a committee is open-ended, because that decision belongs to the committee.
14 working days is about three calendar weeks, and more across a public holiday period. People count 14 calendar days, start chasing on day fifteen, and conclude something has gone wrong when nothing has.
Note the submission date, add three weeks, and do not panic before then. The outcome arrives by SMS.
What clears a blocked file, and in what order
Sequencing is where most of the wasted months go. The order is not optional.
| Step | Why it comes here |
|---|---|
| 1. Establish what actually exists | A report, an uncancelled permit and an unpaid fine feel identical and are not. Check both systems |
| 2. Cancel the absence complaint | Free, and it unblocks the labour-court route, which is conditional on no complaint existing |
| 3. Deal with the work permit | Confirm whether it is live and on whose file |
| 4. Settle or apply to waive the fines | The immigration side blocks transactions independently of the labour side |
| 5. Adjust status or depart | ICP publishes this as a condition following payment — paying alone resolves nothing |
| 6. Confirm it is all recorded | Obtain the cancellation document, and re-check both systems |
Step six is the one people skip. Being told something was cancelled is not evidence that it was. MoHRE’s public inquiry portal publishes an Absconding Withdraw Cancellation Document lookup, and a Cancellation Transaction Enquiry, both keyed to the transaction number. Get the number, get the document, keep it.
Our guide on how to check whether an absconding case exists covers those tools and what each requires.
A 30-day plan
If you are starting from nothing but a suspicion, this is what a month of deliberate action looks like. It is deliberately unhurried, because the published timescales are what they are and rushing the early steps is what causes the sequencing errors.
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| Days 1–2 | Establish the facts. Get your unified number from GDRFA’s free enquiry, find your Person Code on MoHRE documentation, and run the violation-settlement lookup. Separately run GDRFA’s fines enquiry |
| Days 3–5 | Get the recorded dates — expiry or cancellation — and work out which grace tier applied. Write the numbers down |
| Days 5–10 | Assemble evidence: contract, wage records, messages, any complaint reference, medical or travel documents. Use the portal’s View Approved Contract lookup if you no longer hold a copy |
| Days 10–12 | Write the account. Dated sequence, facts, documents. Put it aside for a day and read it again cold |
| Day 13 | Lodge the cancellation. Free. Record the transaction number |
| Days 13–15 | In parallel, deal with the fines — settle them, or prepare the GDRFA exemption application with its passport copy and letter |
| Days 15–30 | Wait. 14 working days is about three calendar weeks. Meanwhile, arrange whichever outcome you are heading for: a sponsor for a status change, or travel |
| On the SMS | Obtain the cancellation document through the portal. Re-check both systems. Keep everything |
Almost every case that goes badly went wrong here, not later.
Someone assumes they have an absconding report and spends three weeks preparing an application for a report that does not exist — the actual problem was an uncancelled work permit. Someone calculates their fines from a remembered date and budgets four thousand dirhams for a nine-thousand-dirham position. Someone lodges the labour court cancellation first and it fails, twice, because a report is standing.
Five days establishing facts saves weeks of acting on the wrong ones. It is unglamorous and it is the whole game.
What to do while you wait
The three weeks between lodging and the SMS are not dead time, and using them badly is common.
Do: deal with the fines in parallel, since they are a separate authority and nothing about the cancellation timeline constrains them. Line up whichever outcome follows — a prospective employer, or a departure. Gather anything that would help if further information is requested.
Do not: chase before the three weeks are up; lodge a second application; or make irreversible decisions — resigning from something, buying a ticket, telling an employer a date — on the assumption of an outcome that has not arrived.
And do not go quiet. If MoHRE requests further information and the request goes to a number you no longer check or an email you have abandoned, the application stalls for reasons that have nothing to do with its merits. Make sure the contact details on the application are ones you monitor daily.
After it is done
Three things, and they take ten minutes between them.
- Get the cancellation document. Through the portal’s Absconding Withdraw Cancellation Document lookup, using the transaction number. This is the evidence, and you will be asked for it.
- Re-check both systems. Confirm the labour record is clear and see where the immigration side now stands. Being told it is done is not the same as seeing it.
- File everything. Transaction numbers, the document, the dates, the results with the dates you ran them. One folder, kept indefinitely.
People who do that last step never have to repeat this process from scratch. People who do not find themselves, years later, in another country, trying to reconstruct from memory what happened and when — which is the same position they started in, minus the documents.
If the report was filed against you unfairly
A word for the people this happens to most, because the published facts are more on their side than they realise.
MoHRE’s conditions for filing are not trivial. The absence must exceed seven days. The employee must be inside the country, evidenced by an ICP entry-and-exit movement report no more than 30 days old. The employer’s own work permit fines must be settled. And the complaint is then examined by a competent officer who can see the establishment’s record, including wage payments through the Wage Protection System.
Which means a report filed as leverage — against someone who was contactable, or who left because they were not being paid, or who had already departed the country — is a report filed against published conditions, examined by someone able to check them.
None of that guarantees your cancellation succeeds. What it does mean is that the situation is not the one-sided arrangement it feels like from the inside. The service is open to you, it costs nothing, and the officer examining it is not working from the employer’s account alone.
So set out what actually happened, with dates and documents, and lodge it. If wages were unpaid, say so plainly and let the record speak. If you tried to contact the employer, evidence it. If you lodged a complaint at the time, give the reference — it is among the most useful things you can put in front of an examiner, because it shows you used the formal route rather than simply disappearing.
And if you did not lodge one at the time, say that too, and explain why. Candour reads better than a tidy story the records do not support.
Where the money actually goes, in order of size
A realistic budget for someone eight months into an unresolved case, so you can see the proportions rather than guess at them.
| Rank | Item | Typical scale |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Overstay fines | Thousands to tens of thousands. AED 50 a day, no cap |
| 2 | The status change or departure | Category-dependent, and unavoidable either way |
| 3 | Your representative’s time | Whatever you agree — and it should be stated separately from government fees |
| 4 | Emirates ID late renewal | Up to AED 1,000, capped |
| 5 | Residence cancellation, if applicable | AED 50 + AED 100 smart services |
| 6 | Domestic worker withdrawal, if applicable | AED 115 outside Dubai |
| 7 | Exit fee, if leaving by land or sea | AED 30 |
| 8 | Fines exemption application, if lodged | AED 15.75 |
| 9 | The cancellation itself | Free |
Read the list from the bottom. The thing everyone is frightened of — the case itself — is the cheapest line on it. The thing nobody mentions in the first conversation is the largest by an order of magnitude.
That inversion is why establishing the fines figure before anything else is not administrative pedantry. It is the difference between a plan and a hope.
Paying someone for their time here is sensible. Doing this badly costs months, and the sequencing errors described throughout this guide are expensive precisely because a wrong order means starting again.
But the fee should be quoted as a fee, separately from government charges, and it should be quoted after the position is known rather than before. A number offered before anyone has looked at your record is not a price. It is a bid on your anxiety.
The cost that is not money
Worth naming, because it is what people actually describe when they look back on it.
An unresolved case of this kind means not working legally, not sponsoring family, not renewing anything, not travelling with confidence, and carrying all of it quietly while hoping the question does not come up. People turn down opportunities. They miss weddings and funerals at home. They avoid conversations with friends. They stop opening official-looking messages.
And it compounds in a particular way: the longer it runs, the harder it becomes to start, because the number grows and the prospect of confronting it grows with it. That is a psychological trap rather than a bureaucratic one, and recognising it is most of escaping it.
The published facts are, on the whole, reassuring against that. The cancellation is free. Either party can lodge it. It takes 14 working days. Even the fines — the genuinely large number — have a published route to a committee that can reduce or waive them, costing AED 15.75 to ask.
None of that is a promise about your outcome. It is a description of a system with doors in it, which is a very different thing from the closed room people imagine themselves in.
How to verify all of this yourself
Everything above comes from published service cards, and checking takes about ten minutes.
MoHRE publishes each service with a consistent structure: Service Fees, Service completion duration, Target audience, Conditions & Requirements and Required Documents. The fee of “None”, the 14 working days, and the phrase “one of the parties to the employment relationship” are all read directly from those fields on the cancellation service. The AED 115 and 3 working days come from the domestic worker withdrawal card. The condition that no absence complaint may exist comes from the labour court cancellation card.
The immigration figures come from ICP’s own service cards, and the AED 15.75 exemption route from GDRFA’s.
We spell this out because the ability to check is the point. Fees change and conditions change; where the authorities publish does not. Anyone advising you should be able to name the service and show you the card — and if they cannot, that is the most useful thing you will learn from the conversation.
Why “we can remove it for a fixed price” is a warning sign
Sit with the structure of that offer for a moment.
The cancellation is free and open to either party. The decision is made by a ministry officer examining a request. There is no fee to waive, no counter to negotiate at, and no published criteria to work against.
So what, exactly, is a large fixed price buying?
| What is being sold | What it actually is |
|---|---|
| “We will remove your case” | Lodging a free application. That is a service worth paying for — but it is time, not access |
| “We have contacts inside” | A claim about influencing an officer’s examination. Treat it as what it sounds like |
| “Guaranteed outcome” | A guarantee of a decision the seller does not make |
| “Fixed price, all inclusive” | Impossible before the fines position is known, since that is the variable part |
| “Pay now, it is urgent” | Urgency manufactured against a 14-working-day service |
To be clear: paying someone for their time and expertise is entirely reasonable. Assembling an honest account, gathering documents, reading a fines position correctly and sequencing the steps is real work, and doing it badly costs months.
What is not reasonable is a price presented as though it were buying an outcome. The honest version of this offer sounds like: the government fee is nothing, our fee is X for handling it, your fines are Y, and the decision is the ministry’s. If nobody will break the number down that way, that is the answer.
“What is the government fee for this service, and what part of your price is your own fee?”
Anyone working legitimately answers immediately: the MoHRE cancellation is free, or AED 115 for a domestic worker outside Dubai, and the rest is theirs. Anyone who cannot separate the two, or who becomes evasive, has told you what you needed to know.
Establish the position before paying anyone
Including us. This is the sequence that protects you from spending money on the wrong problem.
- Confirm a report actually exists. A great many people convinced they have an absconding case in fact have an uncancelled work permit or an unpaid fine — three different problems that feel identical from outside and have entirely different remedies.
- Get the fines figure. GDRFA’s enquiry is free and covers all seven emirates, including files under your sponsorship. This is the number that determines what the situation really costs.
- Get the recorded dates. Not remembered ones. Everything is calculated from them.
- Only then discuss price. Any quote given before these three things are known is a guess dressed as a quote.
Reclaiming what you may be owed
An angle almost nobody raises, and it occasionally turns a bill into a refund.
MoHRE’s public inquiry portal carries services for Bank Guarantee Detail and Bank Guarantee Refund Approval Receipt. ICP separately publishes Refund of Fees, for issuance fees where a service was not completed, and Refund of fees for approved applications, for financial guarantees collected on approved applications.
Where a relationship ended messily — a company that closed, a sponsorship that collapsed, transactions started and abandoned — guarantees and fees are frequently left sitting. Nobody chases them, because nobody remembers they exist.
It is worth a look. The lookups are free, and finding a refund you had forgotten is a considerably better outcome than most people expect from a morning spent on this subject.
For employers
If you filed a report and the situation has since resolved, cancelling it costs you nothing and takes 14 working days.
Three reasons to do it rather than leave it:
- It blocks a route you may need. MoHRE’s labour court cancellation service publishes a condition that no absence-from-work complaint exists. Your own report is what stands in the way.
- The worker can cancel it without you. The service is open to either party, so leaving it standing does not give you the control you may think it does.
- It causes real harm. An approved report restricts a person’s ability to work, renew, travel and support a family. Where the matter is settled, leaving it in place serves no purpose.
Our guide on what to do when an employee stops turning up covers the filing decision, including the published conditions that stop most filings before they start.
Four situations, and what each actually costs
Report filed three weeks ago, still within your grace period
The best case, and more common than people assume.
Cost: nothing on the MoHRE side, and potentially nothing on the immigration side either, because a grace period may still be running. Time: 14 working days for the cancellation. Do: lodge it yourself, confirm which grace tier applies to you, and get the cancellation document afterwards.
Report standing eight months, status lapsed
The typical case that arrives at our door.
Cost: nothing for the cancellation; roughly AED 12,000 in overstay fines plus AED 1,000 on the Emirates ID, subject to the actual recorded dates. Time: three weeks for the cancellation, then the fines and the status transaction. Do: get the exact figure first. If it is beyond your means, the GDRFA exemption application costs AED 15.75 to lodge and exists for precisely this.
Domestic worker, report filed, employer uncontactable
Faster and more favourable than the establishment route.
Cost: AED 115 outside Dubai; in Dubai it runs through GDRFA systems. Time: 3 working days. Do: lodge it. MoHRE telephones both parties as part of the process, the residence visa is accepted whether valid or not, and on approval the worker may cancel without referring to the employer within a week. Being unable to reach the employer does not close this route.
Report standing, and a labour court matter as well
The one where sequencing decides everything.
Cost: both MoHRE services are free. Time: 14 working days each, and they cannot be run in parallel. Do: cancel the absence complaint first, because the labour court cancellation service publishes a condition that no such complaint exists. Take legal advice on the court matter itself — that is a lawyer’s territory, not an administrative one.
What circulates that is not true
| The claim | The position |
|---|---|
| “Removal costs several thousand dirhams” | MoHRE publishes the cancellation as free. AED 115 for a domestic worker outside Dubai |
| “Only the employer can cancel it” | The service is open to one of the parties to the employment relationship — which includes you |
| “It takes months” | 14 working days published, and 3 for the domestic worker route |
| “A contact can speed it up” | An officer examines the request. There is no queue to jump |
| “Cancelling clears everything” | It clears the labour record. Immigration fines are a separate authority and survive it |
| “Cases expire eventually” | Nothing here clears through the passage of time |
| “You must pay the fine before applying” | The MoHRE cancellation publishes no such condition. They are separate systems |
| “A refusal is final” | No appeal route is published on the service card, which is not the same as none existing. Take advice rather than resubmitting the same request |
What we will and will not do
We will confirm first whether a report actually exists, because a third of the people who ask us about this turn out to have a different problem; establish the fines position across both systems so you know the real number before anyone quotes you; help you write the account and assemble the documents, which is where the work genuinely is; lodge the applications and track them by transaction number; obtain the cancellation document afterwards so you hold evidence rather than a recollection; and tell you plainly when the answer is that the service is free and you can lodge it yourself this week.
We will not quote a fixed price for an outcome a ministry officer decides; claim contacts that influence an examination; charge you a government fee for a service published as free; invent criteria that MoHRE does not publish; or take money before we know what your record actually shows.
Cost and time questions
How much does it cost to remove an absconding case?
MoHRE publishes the Cancellation of an Absence from Work Complaint service with fees of none. For domestic workers, withdrawal is AED 115 in all emirates except Dubai, where it runs through GDRFA systems. Any larger figure is someone’s service fee, not a government charge.
How long does it take?
14 working days for the establishment-worker cancellation — roughly three calendar weeks — and 3 working days for the domestic worker withdrawal. The outcome is communicated by SMS.
Can I apply without my former employer?
Yes. MoHRE publishes the cancellation service as available to one of the parties to the employment relationship, with a target audience of employers and employees. You do not need the employer’s cooperation to lodge it.
Does cancelling the report clear my fines?
No. The report sits with MoHRE and the fines with the residency authorities. They are separate systems and must be resolved separately.
What will the fines be?
ICP publishes AED 50 per day, with no cap, running from the day after your grace period ends. Run GDRFA’s free fines enquiry for the actual figure rather than estimating — it searches by file number, UDB, Emirates ID or passport and covers all seven emirates.
What if I cannot afford the fines?
GDRFA publishes a standing service, Exemption from fines for violators of Residence Law, through which a Fines Committee may waive or reduce a penalty. The published fee is AED 15.75 for the individuals category, and the required documents are a passport copy and a letter stating the reasons for the violations and an inability to pay.
What are my chances of the cancellation being approved?
MoHRE does not publish criteria or success rates, so nobody can honestly tell you. What is published is that a competent officer examines the request. Submit an honest, documented account.
What documents do I need?
MoHRE does not publish a document list for the cancellation service. In practice, anything evidencing what actually happened helps — employment documents, correspondence, records of wage payments or non-payment, any complaint you lodged, and identification. Assemble it before you apply.
Can I track the application?
Yes, through MoHRE’s public inquiry portal using the transaction number — Application Status and Cancellation Transaction Enquiry both take one. Record the number when you submit.
How do I prove afterwards that it was cancelled?
Through the portal’s Absconding Withdraw Cancellation Document lookup, using the transaction number. Keep the document — you will be asked for it, and being told it was cancelled is not evidence.
I have a labour court case as well. Which comes first?
The absence complaint. MoHRE’s cancellation service for a work permit where a labour court case exists publishes a condition that no absence-from-work complaint exists against the employee, so that route is closed until the report is cleared.
Someone quoted me AED 5,000 to remove it. Is that normal?
Ask them to separate the government fee from their own. The MoHRE cancellation is published as free. A fee for handling the work is reasonable; a fee presented as buying an outcome is not, because the decision belongs to an officer examining the request.
Might I be owed money back?
Possibly. MoHRE’s portal carries Bank Guarantee Detail and Bank Guarantee Refund Approval Receipt lookups, and ICP publishes services for refunding issuance fees where a service was not completed and financial guarantees on approved applications. Where a relationship ended messily, these are frequently left unclaimed.
If you would rather not lodge and track it yourself, that is our absconding case removal service in Dubai.
Please note. Fees, completion times and conditions are as published by MoHRE, GDRFA Dubai and ICP at the date of verification and are subject to change. Cancellation requests are examined by a ministry officer and outcomes cannot be predicted; applications to the Fines Committee are discretionary with no published criteria or timescale. Court matters require legal advice. Not legal advice.
Getting the file cleared
Fines, bans and unresolved status rarely sit alone. One unresolved item blocks the next, and the order you deal with them in decides how long the whole thing takes.
Establishing what is actually on a file and clearing it in the right sequence is part of our PRO services in Dubai.
