Key takeaways
- Every quote has two halves: the government fee, which is published and identical wherever you go, and the provider’s fee, which is not. Anyone who will not separate them is hiding one inside the other.
- The government half is knowable in advance. This page lists the published figure for every common transaction, with the authority that publishes it.
- Provider choice moves the total far less than three other variables — company category, whether the person is inside or outside the UAE, and whether anything is already outstanding.
- Several things you may be paying for are published as free — the MoHRE establishment card through its own website and app, and absence-from-work complaint cancellation among them.
- The most expensive line on most files is not a fee at all. It is a fine that accrued while something sat unresolved, at AED 50 a day with no published cap.
Pricing in this market is deliberately opaque. Most providers quote one bundled number, which makes comparison impossible and mark-up invisible.
It does not have to be. The government half of every transaction is published — on GDRFA Dubai’s service catalogue, on ICP’s service cards, on MoHRE’s services directory. We have gone through those sources and put the figures in one place, with the authority named against each, so you can price your own file before anyone quotes you.
This is the reference we work from ourselves.
The two halves of any quote
| Government fee | Provider fee | |
|---|---|---|
| Set by | The authority | Whoever you engage |
| Published? | Yes — on the service card | No |
| Varies by provider? | No. Identical everywhere | Entirely |
| Negotiable? | No | Sometimes |
| What you are buying | The transaction | Someone’s time, judgement and accountability |
“What is the government fee, and what is your fee?”
Anyone working properly answers immediately, because they read it off the same service cards we did. Anyone who cannot separate the two — or who becomes vague, or insists it is “all inclusive” without a breakdown — has told you what you needed to know.
That is not a trick question. It is the only way to compare two quotes at all.
Residence and visa fees — GDRFA Dubai
Published on GDRFA Dubai’s service catalogue and official FAQ. Amer centre charges sit on top of these where the transaction is lodged through a centre.
| Transaction | Published fee |
|---|---|
| Residence stamping / renewal — 1 year | AED 360 (expatriate sponsor) · AED 310 (UAE national sponsor) |
| Residence stamping / renewal — 2 years | AED 460 (expatriate) · AED 410 (national) |
| Residence stamping / renewal — 3 years | AED 560 (expatriate) · AED 510 (national) |
| Family / residence visa — sponsored from inside the UAE | AED 1,035 |
| Family / residence visa — sponsored from outside | AED 365 |
| Residence cancellation — inside the country | AED 190 individuals · AED 225 companies, plus Amer fees |
| Residence cancellation — outside the country | AED 290 individuals · AED 325 companies, plus Amer fees |
| Hold service (pause a residence during a transfer) | AED 141, plus a refundable AED 2,500 deposit |
| Work visa | AED 200 + VAT |
| Status amendment (change of status inside the country) | AED 500 + AED 10 Knowledge + AED 10 Innovation, plus AED 15 individual or AED 50 establishment |
Two conditions attach to the hold service that decide whether it is available to you at all: the residence must have at least three months’ validity, and the hold may not exceed 60 days.
Visit and tourist visas
| Type | Visit visa | Tourist visa |
|---|---|---|
| 30 days, single entry | AED 505 | AED 250 |
| 30 days, multiple entry | AED 805 | AED 690 |
| 90 days, single entry | AED 950 | AED 600 |
| 90 days, multiple entry | AED 1,855 | AED 1,740 |
| Extension | AED 810 each, twice (30 days then 20 days), plus Amer fees | Not extendable |
Visit visas also carry a refundable deposit — AED 1,020 for first-degree relatives and AED 2,020 for second-degree family members. That is money you get back, but it is money you have to have, and it rarely appears in a quoted price.
A provider quoting “AED 505 for a 30-day visit visa” is quoting accurately and still leaving you unprepared, because you also need AED 1,020 or AED 2,020 available on the day.
It comes back. It is not a cost. But if nobody tells you about it, it is a problem at the counter.
Federal identity and residence fees — ICP
Published on ICP’s own service cards. These are federal, so the figures are the same in every emirate.
| Transaction | Published fee | Completion |
|---|---|---|
| Emirates ID renewal — residents | AED 100 per year of residence + AED 100 smart application | 5 days |
| Emirates ID late renewal fine | AED 20 per day, capped at AED 1,000 | — |
| Late reporting of a change in personal data | AED 20 per day after the 30-day window, capped at AED 1,000 | — |
| Overstay fine | AED 50 per day — no published cap | — |
| Fine payment service | AED 100 smart services fee | 2 days |
| Misuse of smart services | AED 2,000 | — |
| Residence cancellation | AED 50 application + AED 100 smart services | 2 days |
| Exceptional cancellation (disputes, sponsor’s death) | AED 100 | 2 days |
| Guarantee — cancel sponsor’s residence without the family’s | AED 5,000 + AED 20 deposit fee | — |
| Permit to stay outside the UAE over 6 months | AED 100 per month of delay + AED 100 smart services | 2 days |
| Exit fee — land and sea ports | AED 30 | — |
Note the asymmetry in the two fine rows. The Emirates ID fine stops at AED 1,000 after fifty days. The overstay fine never stops. Over a year the two differ by roughly seventeen thousand dirhams, and the belief that “fines cap at a thousand” is one of the most expensive misunderstandings in this market. Our guide to the overstay fine per day sets out the arithmetic in full.
ICP publishes a guarantee that lets a sponsor cancel their own residence without cancelling their family’s — useful when changing employer and you do not want to uproot everyone.
It is available only while your residence is valid or still inside its grace period, and their permits have at least three months left. Drift past either and the route closes, and the only remaining path is to cancel the family’s permits first.
That is a five-thousand-dirham option that expires quietly. Worth knowing before it does.
Labour fees — MoHRE
The part of the market where the published position most often differs from what people are charged.
| Transaction | Published fee | Completion |
|---|---|---|
| Establishment card issuance | Free via MoHRE website and app — only government fees apply | 2 working days |
| Ta’qeem fees | AED 406 | — |
| Business centre commission | Capped at AED 72 | — |
| Filing an absence-from-work complaint | None | 2 working days |
| Cancelling an absence-from-work complaint | None — either party may lodge it | 14 working days |
| Work permit cancellation with a labour court case | None | 14 working days |
| Absconding report — domestic worker, filing | AED 315 (all emirates except Dubai) | 2 working days |
| Absconding report — domestic worker, withdrawal | AED 115 (all emirates except Dubai) | 3 working days |
The MoHRE establishment card, filing an absence complaint, cancelling one, and the labour-court work permit cancellation are all published with no government fee.
If you have been quoted a large “government fee” for any of them, you were quoted somebody’s own fee wearing a government label. Paying for a person’s time on these is perfectly reasonable — the work is real. Being told the ministry charges for them is not.
Company and establishment fees
| Transaction | Published fee | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Immigration establishment card — issuance or renewal | AED 200 + 5% VAT, plus AED 10 Knowledge Dirham, AED 10 Innovation Dirham and AED 50 service fee — about AED 280 digitally | GDRFA Dubai |
| — urgent processing | + AED 100 | GDRFA Dubai |
| — lodged through an Amer centre (issuance) | + AED 100 | GDRFA Dubai |
| Representative’s (PRO) card | Collection commissions: AED 20 per transaction; AED 50 companies or AED 15 individuals. Amer submission + AED 100 | GDRFA Dubai |
| MoHRE establishment card | Free via website and app; Ta’qeem AED 406 | MoHRE |
The immigration card and the MoHRE card are two different documents from two different authorities, obtained in a fixed order — the immigration one first, because MoHRE requires a copy of it. We take both apart in our guide to the immigration card and establishment card.
Medical, tenancy and supporting costs
| Item | Published fee |
|---|---|
| Medical fitness test — standard | AED 250 |
| Medical fitness test — other service tiers | AED 300 and AED 350 depending on category |
| Ejari registration — via app | AED 177.75 |
| Ejari registration — at a trustee centre | AED 220 |
These are the ones people forget when budgeting, because they are not “the visa” — but no residence application completes without the medical, and family sponsorship generally requires a registered tenancy contract.
What a real file adds up to
Individual fees are only useful assembled. Here is what the published figures come to for the transactions people actually ask about.
Renewing a residence visa, expatriate sponsor, two years
| Line | Published |
|---|---|
| Residence stamping / renewal, 2 years | AED 460 |
| Emirates ID renewal, 2 years | AED 200 |
| Emirates ID smart application fee | AED 100 |
| Medical fitness test | AED 250 upward |
| Government subtotal | from about AED 1,010 |
| Amer / typing centre charges | Varies |
| Provider fee | Quoted separately |
Cancelling a residence and leaving, individual
| Line | Published |
|---|---|
| Residence cancellation, inside the country | AED 190 + Amer fees |
| Or via ICP | AED 50 + AED 100 smart services |
| Exit fee, if departing by land or sea | AED 30 |
| Any accrued overstay | AED 50 per day, uncapped |
Setting up a company’s visa capability from scratch
| Step | Published |
|---|---|
| Immigration establishment card (GDRFA) | about AED 280 digitally |
| MoHRE establishment card | Free via website and app |
| Ta’qeem | AED 406 |
| Representative’s card | Collection commissions from AED 20 |
| Government subtotal | from about AED 706 |
That last figure surprises people. The government cost of making a company able to sponsor visas at all is in the hundreds, not the thousands. What costs money is the work, the sequencing and the documents — the notarised authorisation, the partners’ appendix, the tenancy contract.
A file that has been left alone for a year
| Line | Published |
|---|---|
| Overstay, 365 days | AED 18,250 |
| Emirates ID late renewal | AED 1,000 (capped) |
| The transaction you actually needed | A few hundred |
Compare the four tables. A renewal handled on time is a four-figure government cost at most. The same file left for a year is nineteen thousand dirhams before anyone has done any work.
The provider’s fee — the number everyone shops around on — is almost never the variable that decides what a file costs. Timing is.
The three variables that dwarf provider choice
If you are comparing quotes, these matter more than the quotes.
1. Company category
MoHRE classifies establishments into categories, and the work permit fee attached to each differs by an order of magnitude — roughly AED 250 at the most favourable classification against several thousand at the least, per permit, before anything else. Two identical hires at two differently-classified companies produce completely different bills.
No provider can change your category. Some will let you assume the difference was their pricing.
2. Inside or outside the country
The same person costs different amounts depending on where they are standing. A family visa sponsored from inside the UAE is published at AED 1,035; from outside, AED 365. A status change inside the country adds AED 500 plus supplements that a person entering on the correct permit never pays.
Getting this decision right before anyone travels is worth more than any discount you will negotiate.
3. Whether anything is already outstanding
An unpaid fine, an uncancelled permit, a lapsed establishment card or a broken link between MoHRE and the residency directorate will each stop a transaction dead. The fee to fix them is usually small. The delay is not, and the fine keeps running while you find out.
Doing it yourself versus using a provider
An honest comparison, because for some files the answer is genuinely “do it yourself”.
| Yourself | Provider | |
|---|---|---|
| Government fee | Identical | Identical |
| Extra cost | Your time; centre charges | Their fee |
| Best for | Single, clean, unhurried transactions — an Emirates ID renewal, a fine payment | Anything with a deadline, a dependency, or something already outstanding |
| Risk | A rejected application costs time, and sometimes the fee again | Paying for work you could have done in twenty minutes |
| Honest verdict | Plenty of transactions are genuinely self-service through the ICP app or MoHRE site | Worth it when sequencing decides the outcome |
We will tell you which of the two you are in. There are files we decline because the answer is that you can lodge it yourself this afternoon for the published fee.
Costs nobody quotes you
| Item | Why it is missed |
|---|---|
| Refundable deposits | AED 1,020 / AED 2,020 on visit visas; AED 2,500 on the hold service. You get them back — you still need them on the day |
| The medical | Separate from the visa fee, and no residence completes without it |
| Ejari | AED 177.75 or AED 220, and family sponsorship generally needs it |
| Attestation and translation | Priced per document, often in the home country first |
| Amer and typing centre charges | Sit on top of the published government fee |
| Urgent processing | AED 100 on an establishment card. Cheap — but only if someone tells you it exists |
| The exit fee | AED 30 leaving by land or sea. Small, and a surprise at the border |
| Accrued fines | The largest line on most difficult files, and the one nobody asks about until the enquiry is run |
What changed in 2026, and what it means for your budget
Two shifts matter for anyone pricing a file this year.
Digital channels now carry a real price advantage. GDRFA publishes an Amer surcharge of AED 100 on establishment card issuance, and its smart services run 24/7. ICP’s fine payment, residence cancellation and Emirates ID services all run through the app or website with no centre charge. For straightforward transactions, the channel you choose is now a genuine line item rather than a convenience question.
The published fee is increasingly only half the picture. Conditions attached to services decide more than the price does. Paying an overstay fine does not resolve status — ICP publishes that status must then be adjusted or you must leave. The AED 5,000 family guarantee expires the moment your own residence leaves its grace period. The re-entry permit for absences over six months does not apply to Dubai-issued residences at all.
None of those are prices. All of them cost money when missed. It is why we publish the conditions alongside the figures throughout this page rather than giving you a bare table — a correct number applied to the wrong route is still an expensive mistake.
Work permits: the biggest single variable
If you are a company, this is where most of your cost sits — and it is decided by a classification you cannot negotiate.
MoHRE classifies establishments into categories, and the work permit fee is attached to the category rather than to the job or the person. The spread between the most and least favourable classification runs from a few hundred dirhams per permit into the low thousands. Two companies hiring the same person on the same salary in the same month can face bills that differ by more than ten times.
A provider quoting you a low number may simply be assuming a favourable category. A provider quoting a high one may know something about your file.
Ask which category your establishment sits in and what the permit fee is at that category. If a quote cannot survive that question, it was never a quote — it was a guess dressed as one.
Our guide to UAE employment visa costs by company category works through the full sequence with the published figures for each.
Classification is driven by things like Emiratisation performance, workforce diversity and compliance record — which means it is not fixed forever. It is one of the few cost levers a company genuinely controls, and it dwarfs anything you will save by changing PRO.
What it costs when something has gone wrong
The published figures for recovery, which almost nobody puts in a price list.
| Situation | Published position |
|---|---|
| Overstay | AED 50 per day, no cap, from the day after the grace period ends |
| Paying the fine | AED 100 smart services fee; two days; status must then be adjusted or you must leave |
| Applying to have a fine waived or reduced | AED 15.75 to lodge with GDRFA’s Fines Committee (individuals category) |
| Cancelling an absconding complaint | Free. 14 working days. Either party may lodge it |
| Withdrawing a domestic worker report | AED 115 outside Dubai; three working days |
| Emirates ID late renewal | AED 20 per day, capped at AED 1,000 |
| Returning after more than six months abroad | AED 100 per month of delay + AED 100 — and the ICP service does not apply to Dubai-issued residences |
The widespread belief is that fines can only be forgiven during an amnesty. That is not true. GDRFA Dubai publishes a standing service through which a Fines Committee may waive or reduce a penalty, and it costs AED 15.75 to lodge, with no published eligibility restrictions.
It is discretionary, so nobody can promise you an outcome — but it costs less than a coffee to ask, and we have seen people carry five-figure fines for years without knowing the route existed. Our guide on fine waivers and amnesty sets out what the application requires.
Build your own quote: a worksheet
Work through this before you speak to anyone. Twenty minutes here changes the entire conversation.
| Step | What to establish |
|---|---|
| 1. Name the transaction | Not “a visa” — a new employment residence, a family renewal, a status change, a cancellation. The fee follows the transaction |
| 2. Name the authority | GDRFA, ICP, MoHRE or DLD. Each publishes its own card |
| 3. Inside or outside the country? | On a family visa this is the difference between AED 1,035 and AED 365 |
| 4. Read the published fee | From this page, or from the service card directly |
| 5. Add the supporting costs | Medical, Emirates ID, Ejari, attestation — whichever apply |
| 6. Add refundable deposits | Not a cost, but money you need available |
| 7. Run the free fines enquiry | GDRFA’s enquiry covers all seven emirates and files under your sponsorship. This is where the surprises are |
| 8. Decide the channel | Digital avoids centre surcharges. Urgent costs AED 100 and sometimes saves more than it costs |
| 9. Now ask for quotes | You already know the government total. You are only comparing the provider fee |
Step seven is the one people skip and the one that changes numbers most. A file with an unpaid fine is not the same job as a clean one, and finding that out at the counter turns a planned transaction into an emergency.
We are not going to publish a price list for other people’s businesses, and anyone who tells you there is a standard rate is inventing it.
What we will say is what you are paying for: someone who knows which authority owns the step, reads the conditions before lodging, sequences dependent transactions correctly, and carries the consequence if it is done wrong. On a clean single transaction that is worth modest money. On a file with three interlocking problems and a deadline it is worth considerably more, and doing it badly is worth a great deal less than nothing.
Judge the fee against the complexity, not against a benchmark somebody quoted you.
Individuals and companies are priced differently
Worth separating, because the two ask the same question and need different answers.
| Individuals | Companies | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical transactions | Residence renewal, Emirates ID, family sponsorship, status change, fines | Establishment cards, work permits, quota, contracts, cancellations |
| Biggest cost driver | Whether the person is inside or outside the country | The establishment’s MoHRE category |
| Where it goes wrong | A missed renewal date turning into a daily fine | A lapsed card blocking every transaction at once |
| Sensible engagement | Per transaction | Retainer once there is turnover and a calendar to keep |
| Free tools that help | Fines enquiry; unified number enquiry | Establishment link status; quota; pending payments |
A company’s costs compound in a way an individual’s do not. One lapsed establishment card stops new permits, renewals and cancellations simultaneously — and because the cancellations are blocked, quota stays occupied by people who left, so the next hire is blocked too. One forgotten AED 280 renewal can hold up an entire hiring plan.
Free zone or mainland
The question changes the answer more than most people expect.
Mainland files run through MoHRE for labour and GDRFA for residence, on the published fees set out above. Free zone entities are sponsored through their free zone authority, which sets its own schedule of charges on top of the federal immigration fees — and those schedules differ between zones.
Practically, that means the figures on this page are your baseline for the immigration side either way, but a free zone company should expect an additional layer from its own authority that we cannot publish here because it varies by zone. Ask your free zone for their current schedule and read it alongside this page — the federal fees will look familiar, the zone’s own will not.
Mainland or free zone, the immigration establishment card and its published fee are the same, and GDRFA’s service explicitly covers “institutions in the private sector or free zone” together.
So if a free zone quote bundles the establishment card into an unexplained lump, you can still price that component yourself: about AED 280 digitally.
A note on why we publish this
Putting a competitor’s cost base on your own website is not conventional. Two reasons we do it anyway.
The first is practical. Most of the difficult conversations in this business come from a client who was quoted a bundled number, discovered a fine at the counter, and now believes they were overcharged. A client who priced their own file before engaging anyone never has that conversation. Transparency is cheaper than a dispute.
The second is that it is checkable. Every figure here sits on a public service card that anyone can open. We could not fudge these numbers if we wanted to — and neither can anyone quoting against them. That works in favour of whoever is being straight with you, which is the position we would rather compete from.
If a provider’s quote makes sense next to this page, engage them. If it does not, ask why. That is the whole intention.
Every figure on one screen
The whole page condensed, for when you just need the number.
| Item | Published fee |
|---|---|
| Residence renewal, 1 / 2 / 3 years, expatriate sponsor | AED 360 / 460 / 560 |
| Residence renewal, UAE national sponsor | AED 310 / 410 / 510 |
| Family visa, inside / outside the country | AED 1,035 / AED 365 |
| Residence cancellation, inside (individual / company) | AED 190 / AED 225 |
| Residence cancellation, outside (individual / company) | AED 290 / AED 325 |
| Residence cancellation via ICP | AED 50 + AED 100 |
| Hold service | AED 141 + AED 2,500 refundable |
| Status amendment | AED 500 + 10 + 10, plus 15 or 50 |
| Emirates ID renewal | AED 100 per year + AED 100 |
| Immigration establishment card | ~AED 280 (urgent +100, Amer +100) |
| MoHRE establishment card | Free + Ta’qeem AED 406 |
| Medical fitness test | from AED 250 |
| Ejari, app / trustee centre | AED 177.75 / AED 220 |
| Visit visa, 30-day single / 90-day single | AED 505 / AED 950 |
| Tourist visa, 30-day single / 90-day single | AED 250 / AED 600 |
| Visit visa deposit, first / second degree | AED 1,020 / AED 2,020 refundable |
| Overstay fine | AED 50 per day, uncapped |
| Emirates ID late fine | AED 20 per day, capped AED 1,000 |
| Fine waiver application | AED 15.75 |
| Absconding complaint cancellation | Free |
| Exit fee, land or sea | AED 30 |
| Permit to stay outside over 6 months | AED 100 per month + AED 100 |
Amer and typing centre charges, VAT and collection commissions sit on top of these, and a provider’s own fee is separate again. But this is the floor — and knowing the floor is what turns a quote from something you accept into something you assess.
How to compare providers properly
Five questions. Any provider worth engaging answers all five without hesitation.
| Ask | What a good answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| What is the government fee, and what is yours? | Two numbers, immediately, read off the service card |
| Which authority handles this? | GDRFA, ICP, MoHRE, DLD — named, not “the government” |
| What is the published completion time? | The figure on the card, and the realistic elapsed time, stated as two different things |
| What could make this cost more? | Named risks — an outstanding fine, a lapsed card, a category issue |
| What happens if it is refused? | A clear position on who bears the re-application fee |
“It’s all-inclusive, don’t worry about the breakdown.” The breakdown is the only thing that lets you compare anything. Refusing to give it is the point, not an oversight.
“We have contacts who can speed it up.” Published completion times are what they are. An offer to bypass them is either untrue or describes something you should not be paying for.
Retainer or per transaction?
The honest answer depends on volume and on how predictable your year is.
| Per transaction | Monthly retainer | |
|---|---|---|
| Suits | Individuals; companies doing a handful of visas a year | Companies with staff turnover, multiple renewals, or a compliance calendar to keep |
| You pay for | Each job | Availability and monitoring, including the months nothing happens |
| Real benefit | No commitment | Somebody is watching the expiry dates — which is where the AED 18,250 files come from |
| Watch for | Repeat set-up cost on every job | Paying a monthly fee for a year in which you had two transactions |
A retainer is not a discount scheme. It is insurance against the thing that actually costs money: a date nobody was watching.
Where companies actually overspend
- Letting the establishment card lapse. It costs about AED 280 to renew and it blocks every visa transaction while it is down — including the cancellations that would free your quota.
- Paying a “government fee” for a MoHRE service published as free.
- Missing the urgent option. AED 100 to halve a wait is often cheaper than the disruption of waiting.
- Not cancelling permits for people who left. They occupy quota and surface when you next try to hire.
- Sponsoring from inside the country when the person could have entered on the right permit. On a family visa that is the difference between AED 1,035 and AED 365.
- Discovering fines at the counter instead of running the free enquiry first.
- Shopping providers on price while ignoring category and timing — the two variables that dwarf the fee.
Verify every figure on this page yourself
All of it is published. None of it requires taking our word.
| Figures | Where they are published |
|---|---|
| Residence stamping, cancellation, hold service, visit and tourist visas, deposits | GDRFA Dubai’s official FAQ |
| Establishment card, representative’s card, fine exemption | GDRFA Dubai service catalogue — Establishments Support Services and Violator Follow-up |
| Overstay, Emirates ID, residence cancellation, the AED 5,000 guarantee, exit fee, the over-6-months permit | ICP service cards |
| Establishment card, Ta’qeem, absence complaints, domestic worker reports | MoHRE services directory |
Each authority publishes a service card with the same fields: fees, completion duration, conditions, required documents. Once you can read one, you can price anything. That is the whole method, and we have put it on this page because a client who can check our numbers is a better client, not a worse one.
Every figure here carries a verification date at the foot of the page. Authorities revise fees, and a page like this is a snapshot.
What does not change is where to look. If a number here disagrees with the service card, the service card is right — and we would rather you told us than assumed we were still current.
What we will and will not do
We will quote the government fee and our fee as two separate numbers, always; run the free fines enquiry before pricing anything, because that is where the surprises live; tell you which authority owns your transaction and what its published completion time is; flag the cheaper route when one exists — entering on the right permit, using the digital channel instead of a centre, taking the urgent option; and tell you when you do not need us.
We will not bundle a government fee into an all-in number; charge you a government fee for a service published as free; claim to accelerate a published completion time; or quote at all before we have seen what is actually on your file.
PRO services cost questions
How much do PRO services cost in Dubai?
There is no single figure, because every quote has two halves. The government half is published and identical everywhere — this page lists it transaction by transaction. The provider half is set by whoever you engage. Ask for both as separate numbers; anyone who will not give you that is hiding one inside the other.
What does a residence visa renewal cost?
GDRFA Dubai publishes residence stamping and renewal at AED 360 for one year, AED 460 for two and AED 560 for three where the sponsor is an expatriate; AED 310, AED 410 and AED 510 respectively where the sponsor is a UAE national. Add the Emirates ID at AED 100 per year plus AED 100 smart application, and the medical.
What does a family visa cost?
GDRFA publishes AED 1,035 where the person is sponsored from inside the country and AED 365 from outside. That difference is the single biggest lever on the cost, and it is decided before anyone travels.
What does an establishment card cost?
The immigration establishment card from GDRFA is AED 200 plus 5% VAT, plus AED 10 Knowledge Dirham, AED 10 Innovation Dirham and an AED 50 service fee — about AED 280 digitally. Urgent processing adds AED 100, and lodging the issuance through an Amer centre adds another AED 100. The MoHRE establishment card is published as free through its website and app, with Ta’qeem at AED 406.
Is the MoHRE establishment card really free?
MoHRE publishes the service as free of charge through its website and app, with only government fees applying. Ta’qeem is AED 406 and business centre commission is capped at AED 72. A large “government fee” quoted for this service is somebody’s own fee.
What is the overstay fine, and does it cap?
ICP publishes AED 50 per day with no cap. The AED 1,000 ceiling people refer to belongs to the Emirates ID late renewal fine, which is a different penalty. Over a year the two differ by roughly AED 17,000.
Why do two providers quote such different prices for the same job?
The government fee is identical for both, so the entire difference is their fee, their assumptions about your company category, or something one of them has spotted on your file that the other has not. Ask both for the split and the difference usually explains itself.
Can a provider get government fees cheaper?
No. Published fees are the same whoever lodges the transaction. What a provider can do is avoid the avoidable ones — sponsoring from outside rather than inside, using the digital channel rather than a centre surcharge, or catching a renewal before a fine starts.
Are there refundable deposits I should budget for?
Yes, and they are frequently left out of quotes. Visit visas carry a refundable deposit of AED 1,020 for first-degree relatives and AED 2,020 for second-degree family members. The hold service carries a refundable AED 2,500. You get them back, but you need them on the day.
What does it cost to cancel a residence visa?
Through GDRFA Dubai: AED 190 for individuals and AED 225 for companies where the cancellation is inside the country, or AED 290 and AED 325 respectively from outside, plus Amer fees. Through ICP: AED 50 application plus AED 100 smart services, completing in two days.
Is a monthly retainer worth it?
It depends on volume. For a handful of transactions a year, per-transaction pricing is usually better. For a company with turnover and several renewal dates, a retainer buys someone watching the calendar — and a missed date is where the genuinely expensive files come from.
What is the cheapest way to handle a straightforward transaction?
Often yourself. Emirates ID renewal, fine payment and several ICP services run through the smart app or website at the published fee with no centre surcharge. We will tell you when that is the right answer for your file.
What makes a file cost more than quoted?
Almost always something already outstanding — an unpaid fine, an uncancelled permit, a lapsed establishment card, or a broken link between MoHRE and the residency directorate. Each is cheap to fix and each stops the transaction until it is. Running the free enquiries first is how you avoid the surprise.
If your question is really about a specific transaction rather than the market, the guides cover them individually — employment visa costs by company category, family visa renewal, and the two establishment cards.
- GDRFA Dubai — Frequently Asked Questions (residence, cancellation, hold, visit and tourist visa fees)
- GDRFA Dubai — Establishments Support Services
- GDRFA Dubai — Exemption from fines for violators of Residence Law
- ICP — Payment of visa or residence violation fine
- ICP — Identity Card Renewal
- ICP — Cancellation of residency permits
- MoHRE — Issuance of Establishment Card
Please note. Every figure on this page is as published by GDRFA Dubai, ICP, MoHRE and the Dubai Land Department at the date of verification, and fees are revised from time to time. Amer and typing centre charges, VAT and collection commissions sit on top of the published government fee and vary by channel. Totals shown are worked from the published components and are illustrative, not quotations. Where a figure here disagrees with the authority’s current service card, the service card governs. Not legal or financial advice.
Where to go next
This page covers what the government charges. Three related pages cover the rest:
- PRO services in Dubai — what we handle, how it works, and what our own charges are
- Corporate PRO services in Dubai — trade licence, establishment card, labour file and quota for companies
- Why UAE companies need PRO services — the full compliance calendar and the 14-step hiring sequence
Every figure above is a government fee published by the authority that charges it. What the list cannot show is how many of them a single file triggers, or the order they must be paid in — which is the part our PRO services in Dubai handle, with these fees passed through at cost and our charge stated separately.
