Key takeaways
- There are two kinds of quota, and almost nobody explains the difference. A proactive quota is awarded automatically with no application and no documents. An electronic quota requires an application with evidence.
- Quota is now issued instantly. MoHRE reported in February 2026 that AI has cut a process that previously took up to 10 days — and issued around 900,000 quotas between February and October 2025.
- Four published conditions: a valid trade licence, private status without restrictions, a valid Taq’eem report, and a profession compatible with your licensed activity.
- Taq’eem costs AED 406. The quota service itself is free through the MoHRE website and app.
- Quota attaches to the establishment file, not to a hiring plan — which is why it cannot simply be requested when you need it.
Quota is the constraint that stops a hire before it starts, and it is the one most business owners discover at the worst possible moment: after an offer has been accepted.
This guide sets out how quota is actually determined, how to check what you have, the distinction between the two types that explains most of the confusion, and what to do when the number is not enough.
Sources are the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation — its published service specification and its own reporting — and the Official Portal of the UAE Government.
The distinction that explains everything
MoHRE’s own service page draws a line that almost no third-party guidance mentions, and it resolves the question people actually have: why does my quota just exist, when my friend had to apply for his?
| Proactive quota | Electronic quota | |
|---|---|---|
| How you get it | Awarded without submitting an application or any documentation | By application, with supporting evidence |
| Documents required | None | Evidence of work volume, trade licence, vehicle list by activity, Taq’eem report |
| When it applies | Attached to opening and updating the establishment file | Where additional or specific quota is sought |
If you have just opened or updated your establishment file, you may already have quota you did not apply for — because the proactive service awards it as a subsidiary procedure attached to the establishment card.
So the first action is never to apply. It is to check what you already hold. Businesses routinely start an application, and sometimes engage a provider, for quota that was already sitting on their file.
MoHRE describes quota as a subsidiary procedure associated with opening and updating the establishment file. That is the mental model to carry: quota follows the file, not the hire.
How to check your quota
Free, immediate, and the step that should precede every hiring decision.
| Channel | Notes |
|---|---|
| MoHRE website — the Inquiry Service at mohre.gov.ae | The primary route |
| MoHRE smart app | Same data, on a phone |
| Call Centre — 600590000 | Available 24/7 |
| Chatbot service | For quick queries |
You log in with your establishment credentials or through UAE Pass on the online and smart channels.
This is the misreading that causes the most avoidable disappointment.
Approved quota is your total permitted headcount under current approvals. Available quota is what remains after the permits you have already issued.
A company with an approved quota of twenty and eighteen active work permits has two available — not twenty. Owners look at the larger number, make three offers, and discover the problem at the permit application.
Check the available figure, not the approved one, and check it before you make an offer rather than after.
The four conditions
MoHRE publishes these plainly, and each one is a real gate.
| Condition | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| A valid trade licence | An expired licence stops quota, and therefore stops hiring, entirely |
| Private status, without any restrictions | Your establishment file must be unrestricted. A block anywhere — WPS, fines, an unresolved violation — sits here |
| A valid Taq’eem report | Required for electronic quota. Fee published at AED 406 |
| The profession must be compatible with the establishment’s business activities | You cannot obtain quota for a role your licence does not cover |
“Private status, without any restrictions” is doing a great deal of work in that sentence.
A restriction on your establishment file — from a WPS breach, an unpaid administrative fine, an unresolved inspection finding — blocks quota, and therefore blocks hiring, regardless of how strong your business case is.
This is why quota problems are so often compliance problems wearing a different hat. Before assuming you need more quota, check whether you have a restriction stopping the quota you already qualify for. Our WPS guide covers the most common source of establishment restrictions.
Condition four, and the licence problem behind it
The profession must be compatible with your establishment’s licensed activities. This is the same rule that governs work permit applications, and it catches growing businesses constantly.
A company expands into an adjacent activity before its trade licence catches up — a trading company starts doing installation, a consultancy starts producing content — and the quota for the new role cannot be granted, because the activity is not on the licence.
The fix is a licence amendment, which is a known process with a known timeline. Discovering the need for one mid-hire is what makes it painful. Our trade licence guide covers activity approvals and how they interact with hiring.
Taq’eem
The requirement people are least prepared for, because it is not obvious what it is.
| Detail | |
|---|---|
| What | A valid Taq’eem report, required for electronic quota |
| Published fee | AED 406 |
| Note on fees | Published figures do not include tax and collection charges |
| Business centre commission | Capped at a maximum of AED 72 where you use one |
| Through MoHRE directly | The service is free through the website and app — only government fees apply |
The quota service itself is free through MoHRE’s own website and app. What you pay is the government fee — Taq’eem at AED 406 — and, if you use a business centre, a commission capped at AED 72.
Those two numbers let you price any quote you are given. A charge presented as “the quota fee” well above them is service, not government, and you are entitled to see the split.
That is how we quote, and our PRO services cost guide publishes the government figures across every authority we deal with.
Instant quota: what changed in 2026
In February 2026 MoHRE announced the outcomes of the second phase of the Zero Government Bureaucracy Programme. The headline for anyone hiring in the UAE is one sentence long, and it is the most consequential change to quota in years.
Establishments now receive work permit quotas instantly, instead of within 10 days.
The Ministry reported that human involvement in reviewing and approving additional quota requests was reduced by approximately 56%, and that procedures and requirements were cut by 100%.
To give a sense of scale: MoHRE reported issuing around 900,000 quotas between February and October 2025.
A ten-day wait is a hiring constraint. It sits between a candidate accepting and a candidate starting, and in a market where good people hold several offers, ten days is long enough to lose them. Removing it changes how you plan a hire, not just how you process one.
An honest conflict in the official sources
We publish these where we find them rather than picking whichever reads better.
| Source | States |
|---|---|
| MoHRE service specification for Work Permit Quotas | Service completion duration: 2 working days |
| MoHRE reporting, February 2026 | Quotas issued instantly, instead of within 10 days |
Both are official MoHRE publications. We are not going to tell you one of them is wrong.
The most likely explanation is timing: the published service specification carries the pre-automation completion standard, while the February 2026 reporting describes the automated outcome now being delivered. Service pages typically lag operational change.
Plan against the longer figure and be pleased by the shorter one. If you build a hiring timeline on “instant” and your case falls to manual review — the 56% reduction in human involvement is a reduction, not an elimination — two working days will not hurt you. Build on “instant” with a start date the next morning, and it might.
The other automation that touches quota
Quota does not live alone. It sits on the establishment file, so changes to how that file is handled change how quota behaves. From the same February 2026 reporting:
| Process | Reported change |
|---|---|
| Establishment Card issuance | Processed automatically on submission to the DED — zero customer visits |
| Updating the Establishment File | Immediate on DED update; 100% reduction in procedures, fields and documents |
| Verification of ID, passport and contract data | AI-driven; 95% time reduction |
| Transaction audit | 10 minutes to under 1 minute |
| Data entry | 3 minutes to 1 minute |
| Qualification verification (MoHRE–Ministry of Higher Education link) | 10 minutes to under 1 minute, a 95% cut |
| Work permit cancellation | Single procedure, zero steps |
| Electronic authorisation via the MoHRE app | 2 minutes instead of 3 days |
| Transactions automated | More than 11 million |
Quota is a subsidiary procedure attached to opening and updating the establishment file. So the fact that updating the file is now immediate on DED update matters directly.
When your trade licence changes — renewal, an added activity, a change of legal form — that change propagates to your establishment file without a separate MoHRE submission. Since quota depends on a valid licence and a compatible activity, this closes a gap in which businesses used to sit licensed for something their MoHRE file did not yet reflect.
Our establishment card guide covers the file itself in full.
What automation does not remove
It is worth being precise about what instant issuance actually means, because it is easy to over-read.
Automation removed the waiting. It did not remove the conditions. The four requirements are unchanged: valid trade licence, unrestricted private status, valid Taq’eem, compatible profession. An establishment that fails one of them now fails it instantly rather than after ten days.
That is genuinely better — a fast no is more useful than a slow one — but it means the work moved rather than disappeared. What used to be waiting time is now preparation time. The businesses that get instant quota are the ones whose licence, file status and Taq’eem were already in order before they asked.
Under the old model, you applied and waited, and used the wait to sort out problems.
Under the new one there is no wait to hide in. Compliance housekeeping has to happen before the request, not during it. Keep the licence current, keep the file free of restrictions, keep Taq’eem valid, and keep licensed activities aligned with the roles you intend to hire — then quota is a formality.
That maintenance work is most of what we do for clients month to month. It is the unglamorous half of PRO services in Dubai: not the transaction on the day, but the file being in a state where the transaction goes through.
How the quota number is decided
The most common question, and the one with the least satisfying answer: there is no published formula that converts business size into a headcount.
What MoHRE does publish is the evidence it assesses for an electronic quota, and reading that list backwards tells you a great deal about the logic.
| Evidence required | What it demonstrates |
|---|---|
| Evidence of work volume | That real work exists for the headcount sought |
| Trade licence | Validity, and which activities you are permitted to perform |
| List of vehicles according to the establishment’s activities | Operational capacity, where the activity depends on vehicles |
| Taq’eem report | The Ministry’s own assessment of the establishment |
This is the item that decides most applications, and it is not a form field. It is an invitation to demonstrate that the work exists.
Signed contracts, executed purchase orders, service agreements, a project schedule, tenancy on premises that requires staffing — documents that show committed work rather than intended work.
A business plan is not evidence of work volume. It is evidence of intent. The distinction is the difference between an approval and a refusal, and it is the single most useful thing to understand before applying.
The vehicle list points the same way: for a transport or delivery business, vehicles are the capacity constraint, and listing them proves the operation is real. Verifiable capacity, not projected demand.
Requesting additional quota, step by step
MoHRE publishes the process in outline. Here it is with the practical detail added at each stage.
Step 1 — Check what you already have
Before anything else, establish your available figure — not your approved one. If a proactive award has already been made against your establishment file, the rest of this process may be unnecessary.
Check through the Inquiry Service on mohre.gov.ae, the MoHRE app, the call centre on 600590000, or the chatbot.
Step 2 — Confirm you meet all four conditions
Run them in order, because they fail in order.
| Check | Where you confirm it | If it fails |
|---|---|---|
| Trade licence valid | Your licence document / DED records | Renew first — nothing proceeds without it |
| Establishment status private, unrestricted | MoHRE establishment file | Identify and clear the restriction |
| Taq’eem report valid | MoHRE records | Obtain or renew — fee AED 406 |
| Profession compatible with licensed activity | Compare the role against your licence activities | Amend the licence before applying |
Step 3 — Log in
Through the MoHRE website or smart application, using your establishment credentials or UAE Pass.
Step 4 — Submit through a service channel
MoHRE lists four: the Service Centre, the website, the mobile application, and Tawseel. The website and app carry no service charge — only government fees. A business centre may charge commission, capped at AED 72.
Step 5 — Electronic referral and verification
The request is referred electronically to the Ministry, which verifies that requirements and documents are met. On compliance, the quota is approved.
MoHRE’s wording is that the request is approved on compliance with the requirements. There is no discretionary layer described, and no negotiation stage.
Which tells you where to spend your effort. You cannot argue a quota upward after submission. Everything that determines the outcome is settled before you submit: the licence, the status, the Taq’eem, the activity match, and the strength of your work-volume evidence.
A refused application is rarely refused because the case was argued badly. It is refused because a condition was not met, and a resubmission that does not fix that condition will be refused again.
Step 6 — Follow up
Through the same four channels. Given instant or two-working-day issuance, a request still open beyond that window is usually a signal that something in the file needs attention rather than that the queue is long.
Costs
| Item | Published figure | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Quota service via MoHRE website or app | Free | Government fees only |
| Taq’eem report | AED 406 | Required for electronic quota |
| Business centre commission | Maximum AED 72 | A cap, not a fixed price |
| Tax and collection charges | Additional | Published fees exclude these |
An all-in total for “getting quota”.
The government-side figures above are published and stable. What sits alongside them is not: whether your licence needs renewing or amending first, whether a restriction has to be cleared, whether a Taq’eem is current, and what your service provider charges. Those vary by establishment and none of them is a MoHRE fee.
Any figure that bundles all of it into one number is hiding which part is government and which part is service. Ask for the split. You are entitled to see it, and the two published numbers above — AED 406 and the AED 72 cap — are enough to check any quote against.
When quota is refused or insufficient
Refusals cluster into a small number of causes, and each has a different remedy. The mistake to avoid is resubmitting without knowing which one you hit.
| Cause | What it looks like | Remedy |
|---|---|---|
| Establishment file restricted | Nothing proceeds; other services blocked too | Identify and clear the restriction. Often WPS or an unpaid fine |
| Licence expired or expiring | Fails the first condition | Renew, then reapply |
| Profession incompatible with activity | Role sought is outside your licensed activities | Amend the licence to add the activity |
| Taq’eem missing or lapsed | Application cannot be assessed | Obtain or renew — AED 406 |
| Insufficient evidence of work volume | Approved for fewer than requested, or refused | Strengthen the evidence — committed work, not projected |
An offer is made and accepted, then quota is checked and comes up short.
At that point every option is bad. You cannot process the permit. You cannot give the candidate a start date. Fixing a licence amendment or clearing a restriction takes as long as it takes, and the candidate is holding other offers.
The remedy is entirely procedural: check available quota before you extend an offer, not after. The check is free and takes minutes. It is the highest-return two minutes in the whole hiring process, and it is skipped constantly because approved quota was glanced at once, months ago, and assumed to still be available.
Reading a partial approval correctly
Being approved for fewer positions than requested is not a refusal, and should not be treated as one. It is an assessment of the evidence you supplied.
The productive response is to ask what the evidence actually demonstrated. Five positions requested on the strength of one signed contract and a projection will read as one contract’s worth of work. Five positions requested against five contracts, or a project schedule with defined staffing, reads differently.
Resubmitting the same evidence with a more emphatic covering note changes nothing, because the assessment is on compliance with requirements, not on the strength of the argument.
Quota and Emiratisation
These two interact, and the interaction is one-directional in a way worth understanding.
Quota governs how many work permits your establishment may hold. Emiratisation targets govern the composition of your workforce — the proportion of UAE nationals in skilled roles, for establishments in scope.
They are separate regimes with separate consequences. But they meet at the establishment file, because non-compliance with Emiratisation targets is one of the things that can place a restriction on that file — and a restricted file fails condition two of the quota requirements.
Emiratisation is not a quota rule. But an Emiratisation problem can become a quota problem, by way of the establishment file status that both depend on.
This is the general shape of UAE compliance and it is worth internalising: the systems are joined at the file. A failure in one area does not stay in that area — it surfaces as a restriction, and the restriction stops everything, including hiring you had no reason to think was at risk.
Our Emiratisation guide covers targets, scope and the compliance calendar in detail.
Establishment file restrictions, in detail
Condition two — “private status without any restrictions” — deserves its own treatment, because it is where the largest share of quota failures actually originate and because it is the least visible of the four.
A restriction is a block placed on your establishment file that suspends services. It does not announce itself with a letter about quota. It surfaces the next time you try to do anything, and quota is often the thing you happen to try.
| Common origin | How it typically arises | Direction of the fix |
|---|---|---|
| Wage Protection System | Salaries not transferred, transferred late, or a file rejected and not corrected | Bring WPS submissions current and correct the rejected file |
| Unpaid administrative fines | A penalty issued and left outstanding | Settle the fine |
| Inspection findings | An unresolved outcome from a MoHRE inspection | Remedy the finding and evidence it |
| Emiratisation non-compliance | Targets not met within the compliance window | Address through the Emiratisation route |
| Expired establishment documents | Licence or card lapsed and not renewed | Renew, which usually lifts the block |
A business that is not hiring, not renewing and not amending anything may hold a restriction for months without noticing, because nothing it does day to day touches the file.
Then a hire comes along, the quota check fails, and the restriction turns out to date from a WPS rejection last quarter that nobody chased. The quota request is now waiting on a fix that has its own timeline — and the fix has to complete before the request can even be assessed.
This is the whole argument for the monthly file-status check. It costs nothing and converts a hiring emergency into a routine administrative task done at a time of your choosing.
The order of operations when a restriction exists
Clear the restriction first, then request quota. Attempting both at once wastes the request, because the assessment will fail on condition two regardless of the merits of everything else you submitted.
It is also worth resolving the cause rather than the symptom. A WPS restriction lifted by making a single late transfer will return next month if the underlying payroll process has not changed. Restrictions that recur are usually process problems, and they will keep interrupting hiring at unpredictable moments until the process is fixed.
Building evidence of work volume
Since this is the requirement that most often determines the size of an approval, it is worth being concrete about what serves and what does not.
| Strong evidence | Weak evidence |
|---|---|
| Signed, executed service contracts with defined scope and duration | Letters of intent and unsigned proposals |
| Purchase orders already issued | Pipeline reports and forecasts |
| Project schedules that specify staffing by role | Organisation charts of a future team |
| Vehicle registrations matching the licensed activity | Plans to acquire vehicles |
| Tenancy on premises whose operation requires staffing | An intention to lease |
| Existing payroll demonstrating sustained operation | Projected payroll |
Everything in the left column is a commitment that already exists and can be verified by a third party. Everything in the right column is a statement about the future made by the applicant.
That is the whole distinction, and once you see it you can classify any document yourself before submitting it. The question to ask of each item is not “does this show we need people?” but “could someone outside my company confirm this is real?”
It also explains why the growing business is often better placed than the fast-growing one. A company with eighteen months of executed contracts has a straightforward case. A company that has just won its first large mandate has one document, however transformative that document is.
Matching the evidence to the number requested
Requests are assessed against what the evidence supports. Asking for a headcount well beyond what the documents demonstrate does not anchor the outcome higher — it produces a partial approval and a resubmission cycle.
A more efficient approach is to request what the current evidence carries, hire against it, and return with a further request once the additional contracts are signed. Two clean approvals take less elapsed time than one ambitious request, a partial approval, and an appeal built on the same documents.
This is also why the maintenance discipline matters more than any technique at the point of application. The strength of your case is determined by what you documented over the preceding year, not by how you present it on the day.
A note on activity-specific evidence
The inclusion of a vehicle list in MoHRE’s document requirements is a useful signal about how the assessment thinks.
For a transport, logistics or delivery business, vehicles are the physical constraint on how much work can be performed, and therefore a direct proxy for staffing need. The Ministry is asking for the thing that limits capacity in your particular activity.
Read across to your own business and supply the equivalent. For a contracting firm it is active project sites. For a facilities company it is buildings under contract. For a clinic it is licensed treatment rooms. Supplying the capacity evidence specific to your activity, unprompted, makes the case in the terms the assessment is already using.
One final point on presentation. Submit the evidence organised by role, so that each position requested is visibly attached to the specific contract, project or capacity that justifies it. An assessor reading a coherent mapping of documents to headcount can approve the number in front of them; an assessor reading an undifferentiated bundle of paperwork has to construct that mapping themselves, and will construct a conservative one.
Where quota sits in the hiring sequence
Quota is the first gate, and understanding what comes after it explains why the timing matters so much.
| Stage | What happens | Blocked by quota? |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Quota | Establishment permitted a number of work permits | — |
| 2. Work permit | Permission for a specific person in a specific role | Yes — cannot be issued without available quota |
| 3. Entry permit | Allows the employee to enter, if outside the country | Indirectly — follows the permit |
| 4. Medical and Emirates ID | Fitness screening and biometrics | Indirectly |
| 5. Residence visa | Residency stamped or issued | Indirectly |
| 6. Contract and WPS registration | Contract registered; salary paid through WPS | Indirectly |
This is why a quota problem is never just a quota problem. It is a residency problem, a start-date problem and a payroll problem, arriving in sequence.
It is also why the instant-issuance change matters more than the raw time saved suggests. Removing ten days from the front of a six-stage chain does not remove ten days from one stage — it moves the entire chain forward, including the employee’s residency and their ability to open a bank account, sponsor family and sign a tenancy.
Our work permit types guide covers stage two, where the choice of permit category is made.
Why the profession you register matters beyond quota
Condition four — profession compatible with licensed activity — has consequences that outlast the quota approval.
The profession recorded on the work permit follows the employee through the contract, and in some cases affects family sponsorship eligibility and salary thresholds. Choosing a profession title because it is the one your quota happens to cover, rather than the one the job actually is, stores up a mismatch that surfaces later — at family sponsorship, at a bank, or at renewal.
Get the licensed activity right, then get the profession right, then apply for quota against it. Doing it in the other order produces a permit that technically issued and practically constrains.
Mainland and free zone: two different systems
A distinction that causes real confusion, because the vocabulary is shared and the mechanics are not.
| Mainland | Free zone | |
|---|---|---|
| Who governs quota | MoHRE | The free zone authority |
| What it is usually tied to | Establishment file, licence, activity, Taq’eem, work volume | Commonly the leased facility — office or flexi-desk size |
| Typical mechanism to increase | Electronic quota application with evidence | Often upgrading the facility or package |
| Rules published | MoHRE service specification | Varies by zone — each authority sets its own |
Everything on this page about conditions, Taq’eem, evidence of work volume and the two working days applies to MoHRE-governed mainland establishments.
If your licence is issued by a free zone authority, your visa allocation is set by that authority under its own rules, and those rules differ meaningfully between zones. In many, the allocation is a function of the space you lease rather than an assessment of your work volume — which means the route to more visas is a property decision, not an application.
Confirm with your own zone’s authority. Applying the mainland framework to a free zone entity wastes time on a process that does not exist there.
The practical difference when you need to scale
The two systems fail differently, and knowing which one you are in tells you where to look when you run short.
A mainland business that has run out of quota needs to demonstrate more work. A free zone business that has run out typically needs more space — and space has a lead time and a cost that has nothing to do with hiring. A company on a flexi-desk package with a small allocation may find that its next hire requires committing to a physical office.
Neither is worse. But the planning horizon differs: an evidence-based increase can move quickly once the evidence exists, while a facility upgrade involves a lease.
Common misconceptions
| Belief | Reality |
|---|---|
| “I need to apply for quota” | Not necessarily — the proactive service awards quota with no application and no documents. Check first |
| “My approved quota is 20, so I can hire 20” | Approved minus issued permits equals available. Check the available figure |
| “Quota is permanent once granted” | It depends on a valid licence and an unrestricted file. Both can lapse |
| “A strong business plan will get me more” | The requirement is evidence of work volume — committed work, not projected |
| “Quota is issued instantly now, so I can hire tomorrow” | The service specification still states two working days, and conditions still apply |
| “My free zone works the same way” | Free zone allocation is set by the zone authority, often by facility size |
| “The quota fee is what my provider quoted” | The service is free via MoHRE. Taq’eem is AED 406; centre commission is capped at AED 72 |
| “I can hire any role my quota covers” | The profession must be compatible with your licensed activities |
Approved quota is not available quota.
Nearly every emergency we are called into on this subject traces back to that single confusion — a number remembered from months ago, treated as headroom, when the permits issued since have consumed it.
A maintenance routine that prevents quota problems
Quota failures are almost never sudden. They are the visible moment of a condition that lapsed quietly some time earlier. A short recurring routine removes most of them.
| Frequency | Check | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | Available quota figure | Keeps the number you plan against current |
| Monthly | Establishment file status — any restriction | Condition two is the most common silent failure |
| Monthly | WPS submissions complete and on time | A frequent source of restrictions |
| Quarterly | Taq’eem validity | Lapses without announcing itself |
| Quarterly | Licensed activities against roles you plan to hire | Catches the activity gap before a hire, not during |
| 90 days before expiry | Trade licence renewal | An expired licence stops everything |
| Before every offer | Available quota for that specific profession | The check that prevents the worst outcome |
Every item above is free to check and takes minutes. Every one of them, left unchecked, can stop a hire at the point where stopping it is most expensive.
There is an asymmetry here that is easy to miss: the cost of checking is trivial and constant, while the cost of not checking is occasional and severe. That is exactly the profile of a task people skip.
Running this calendar for clients — so that quota, licence, Taq’eem and file status are all current before anyone needs them — is the substance of what a Dubai PRO services relationship is for. The transactions are the visible part; the calendar is what makes them uneventful.
What to keep on file
If you may need an electronic quota within the year, collect the evidence continuously rather than assembling it under pressure.
Keep signed contracts and executed purchase orders as they are completed. Keep project schedules that show staffing requirements. Keep the vehicle list current where your activity involves vehicles. Keep the trade licence and Taq’eem report in the same place as all of it.
An application assembled from a maintained file takes an afternoon. The same application assembled from scratch, while a candidate waits, takes a fortnight and is usually weaker, because the strongest evidence is the contract signed eight months ago that nobody kept a copy of.
Scenarios
The four situations we are asked about most, and what each one actually requires.
You are a new company with no employees yet
Check before you apply. Quota is a subsidiary procedure attached to opening the establishment file, and the proactive service awards it without an application or documents. There is a reasonable chance an allocation already exists against your file.
If it does and it is enough for your first hires, you proceed straight to work permits. If it is not, you are into the electronic route — and as a new company your challenge is that evidence of work volume is exactly what a new company has least of. Signed contracts carry the argument here; a founder’s plan does not.
You are hiring one more person and think you have room
Confirm the available figure and confirm the profession is compatible with your licensed activities. Two minutes, free.
If both check out, quota is not your constraint and you can move to the permit. If the profession is outside your licensed activities, stop — a licence amendment comes first, and discovering that after an offer is the expensive version of finding out.
You are scaling and need a significant increase
This is the electronic quota route in full, and it rewards preparation. Assemble evidence of work volume — committed, documented work — confirm Taq’eem is valid, confirm the file is unrestricted, and confirm every profession you intend to hire is covered by your licensed activities.
If your activities do not cover the roles, amend the licence first. Requesting quota for a profession outside your activity fails on condition four regardless of how strong the rest of the case is.
Your request was refused
Establish which condition failed before doing anything else, and resist the instinct to resubmit immediately. The conditions are published and finite: licence, status, Taq’eem, activity compatibility — plus the sufficiency of your work-volume evidence.
Resubmitting without fixing the failed condition produces the same outcome. If it is a restriction on the establishment file, that restriction has its own cause — frequently WPS or an unpaid fine — and clearing it usually resolves more than the quota request.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check my company’s visa quota in Dubai?
Through MoHRE’s Inquiry Service at mohre.gov.ae, the MoHRE smart application, the call centre on 600590000, or the chatbot. You log in with your establishment credentials or through UAE Pass. The check is free.
Look at your available quota rather than your approved quota — available is what remains after the work permits you have already issued.
Do I have to apply for quota?
Not always. MoHRE operates quota as a proactive service, and states that a proactive quota is awarded without submitting an application or any documentation to the Ministry.
An electronic quota — where you are seeking a specific or additional allocation — does require an application with supporting evidence. Check what you already hold before starting one.
How long does a quota request take?
The official sources give two figures. MoHRE’s published service specification states a service completion duration of 2 working days. MoHRE’s February 2026 reporting states that establishments now receive quotas instantly, instead of within 10 days.
Both are official. The likely explanation is that the service page carries the pre-automation standard. Plan against two working days.
What does quota cost?
The service is free through the MoHRE website and application — only government fees apply. The Taq’eem report is AED 406. Where you use a business centre, commission is capped at a maximum of AED 72. Published fees exclude tax and collection charges.
What are the conditions for getting quota?
MoHRE publishes four: a valid trade licence; the establishment must maintain private status without any restrictions; a valid Taq’eem report; and the profession must be compatible with the establishment’s business activities.
What documents do I need for an electronic quota?
MoHRE lists: evidence of work volume, the trade licence, a list of vehicles according to the establishment’s activities, and a Taq’eem report.
Evidence of work volume is the item that decides most applications — documented, committed work rather than projections.
Why was my quota request refused?
Almost always one of the published conditions. A restriction on the establishment file is the most common, and it usually has an underlying cause such as a WPS issue or an unpaid fine. Others: an expired licence, a lapsed Taq’eem, a profession outside your licensed activities, or insufficient evidence of work volume.
MoHRE approves on compliance with the requirements, so identify which requirement failed rather than resubmitting.
Can I get quota for any job role?
No. The profession must be compatible with your establishment’s licensed business activities. If the role falls outside them, the licence has to be amended first.
Does this apply to free zone companies?
No. Everything here concerns MoHRE-governed mainland establishments. Free zone visa allocations are set by the individual free zone authority under its own rules, commonly tied to the size of the facility leased. Confirm with your own zone.
What is Taq’eem?
An assessment report required as a condition for quota. MoHRE publishes the fee at AED 406. It must be valid at the time of the request, and it can lapse without notice — worth checking quarterly.
What is the difference between approved quota and available quota?
Approved quota is your total permitted headcount. Available quota is what remains after the work permits already issued. A company approved for twenty with eighteen active permits has two available.
Confusing the two is the most common and most expensive quota mistake.
Can I hire someone before confirming quota?
You can make an offer, but you cannot issue a work permit without available quota — and everything downstream, including the residence visa, follows the permit.
Check availability before extending an offer. The check is free and takes minutes.
Has anything changed recently?
Yes. Under the second phase of the Zero Government Bureaucracy Programme, MoHRE reported in February 2026 that establishments receive quotas instantly rather than within 10 days, that human involvement in reviewing additional requests fell by around 56%, and that procedures and requirements were reduced by 100%. Around 900,000 quotas were issued between February and October 2025.
Establishment card issuance is now automatic on submission to the DED, and establishment file updates are immediate on DED update.
Does an expired trade licence affect quota?
Yes, directly. A valid trade licence is the first published condition. An expired licence stops quota and therefore stops hiring. Renew before the expiry rather than after.
How does Emiratisation affect quota?
They are separate regimes — quota governs headcount, Emiratisation governs workforce composition. They meet at the establishment file: non-compliance can place a restriction on it, and a restricted file fails the second quota condition.
Where do I follow up on a submitted request?
The Inquiry Service on mohre.gov.ae, the MoHRE smart application, the call centre on 600590000, or the chatbot. Given instant or two-working-day issuance, a request still open beyond that usually indicates something in the file needs attention.
Sources
- Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation — Work Permit Quotas For Establishments service specification: conditions and requirements, service completion duration, fees, required documents, channels and follow-up. mohre.gov.ae
- Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation — news release, 9 February 2026, on the outcomes of the second phase of the Zero Government Bureaucracy Programme: instant quota issuance, the 56% reduction in human involvement, approximately 900,000 quotas issued February–October 2025, establishment card automation and establishment file updates. mohre.gov.ae
- Official Portal of the UAE Government — general framework for work permits and establishment obligations. u.ae
All figures quoted are as published by MoHRE. Where two official MoHRE publications differ — the two working days in the service specification against instant issuance in the February 2026 reporting — both are reproduced above rather than reconciled.
This guide is general information, not legal advice, and reflects MoHRE’s published position at the time of writing. Fees, procedures and service standards change. Confirm current requirements with MoHRE through mohre.gov.ae, the MoHRE application or the call centre on 600590000 before acting, and note that free zone establishments are governed by their own authority’s rules rather than the framework described here.
