UAE Employment Visa Cost: Full Government Fee Breakdown by Company Category

Ask three PRO companies what an employment visa costs and you will get three bundled numbers and no explanation. That is not an accident. A single figure hides which part is government fee, which part is transaction charge, and which part is margin.

This guide does the opposite. Below are complete, line-by-line government fee breakdowns for an employment residency visa in Dubai, for Category 1, 2 and 3 establishments, for applicants inside and outside the country. Every line is named, every line is explained, and every total reconciles.

We publish this because we do not mark up government fees, so we have nothing to lose by showing you exactly what they are — and because you cannot judge a quote you cannot audit.

Where these numbers come from

Being precise about sourcing matters more here than anywhere else on this site, so here is exactly what each figure is.

How to read a Tasheel or Amer fee breakdown

Every line on an official breakdown has four components, and understanding them stops you mistaking a service charge for a government fee.

Notice what this means: on a Category 3 file the government fees total AED 6,714.68, transaction charges total AED 713.87, and VAT totals AED 23.22. VAT is small because most government fees are not subject to it — four of the ten lines carry zero tax.

If someone quotes you a single number and cannot break it into those three buckets, they are not showing you the government fee.

Why the same visa costs three different amounts

MoHRE classifies every establishment into categories, and the classification decides what a work permit costs. The Ministry publishes the figures on its own service card:

Plus a federal work permit application fee of AED 50 across categories 1, 2 and 3.

On the actual Tasheel breakdowns, the labour fee line sits marginally above the Ministry’s headline figure — AED 1,208.57 against AED 1,200 for Category 2, and AED 3,474.63 against AED 3,450 for Category 3. That is an uplift of about 0.71% in both cases, consistently applied.

Our guide to the MoHRE labour card covers the work permit itself, and the complete MoHRE guide explains how establishment classification works.

Category 3 company, applicant inside the country

This is an actual Tasheel breakdown, printed in full. Ten line items, split below by the centre that collects them.

Tasheel — the MoHRE labour side

Amer — the GDRFA immigration side

Category 2 company, applicant inside the country

Every line is identical to Category 3 except one. Only the labour fee moves.

Tasheel — the MoHRE labour side

Amer — the GDRFA immigration side

Identical to Category 3, line for line: entry permit AED 1,125.65, change status AED 675.65, Emirates ID AED 385.41, DHA typing AED 322.50, visa stamping AED 546.65.

Category 1 company, applicant inside the country

All three categories side by side, inside the country

Nine of the ten lines are identical across all three columns. AED 3,903.64 of every inside-country employment visa is fixed, whoever the employer is. Only the labour fee moves — and it moves by AED 3,222.84 between Category 1 and Category 3.

Applying from outside the country: what actually changes

Two things change, and only two. Everything else on the breakdown stays exactly where it is.

Change one: the status change disappears

An applicant already inside the UAE — on a visit visa, a cancelled residence, or another status — has to be converted to the new employment status without leaving. That is the change status line, and on the observed breakdown it is AED 592.50 fee + AED 83.15 transaction charge = AED 675.65.

An applicant arriving from overseas does not need it. They enter on the employment entry permit, and the status is established at the airport on arrival. The line is not reduced; it is not there at all.

Saving: AED 675.65.

Our guide to visa status change cost in the UAE covers that service in its own right.

Change two: the inside-country entry permit supplement does not apply

This is the part that is almost never published, so here is GDRFA’s own fee schedule for the work entry visa, quoted in substance:

Read that carefully, because it answers the question directly. The Knowledge Dirham, the Innovation Dirham and the AED 500 inside-country fee are conditional on the sponsored person being inside the country. For an applicant outside the UAE, none of them apply.

The inside-country supplement is therefore exactly AED 520. That is 500 + 10 + 10, published by GDRFA, not estimated by us.

The same page confirms the purpose of the permit: the foreigner is given a work entry visa allowing them to remain in the country for sixty days from the date of entry until the requirements for residency are completed — and that the service requires MoHRE’s endorsement of the work permit first. Labour side before immigration side, as always.

Reconciling GDRFA’s schedule with the Amer line item

Here we have to be careful and honest, because two numbers that look like they should match do not.

The Amer line is higher than GDRFA’s published base. GDRFA anticipates this in its own note — the total may vary depending on circumstances — and in practice the Amer line bundles additional government components beyond the headline visa fee.

What we can state with confidence is the differential, because GDRFA publishes it as a discrete, conditional amount: AED 520 applies inside the country and does not apply outside it.

Outside the country: the three categories

Total reduction against the inside-country file: AED 675.65 (status change removed) + AED 520.00 (inside-country supplement removed) = AED 1,195.65.

Inside versus outside, at a glance

The saving is the same in absolute terms across all three categories, because both removed items are category-independent. As a proportion it matters most to a Category 1 employer, where AED 1,195.65 is roughly 28% of the whole file.

What every line actually pays for

A breakdown you cannot interpret is only marginally better than a bundled number. Here is what each of the ten lines is, why it exists, and what to watch on it.

Tasheel lines — the MoHRE side

1. Labour fees — the work permit itself

This is the two-year work permit, and it is the only line that varies by establishment category. MoHRE publishes AED 250, AED 1,200 and AED 3,450 for categories 1, 2 and 3, plus a federal application fee of AED 50.

The permit runs two years and authorises this specific person to work for this specific employer. It is what people still call the labour card — see our MoHRE labour card guide.

What to watch: if this line does not match your establishment’s category, either the category is not what you think it is, or the wrong category has been applied. It is the most expensive error possible on the sheet.

2. Labour insurance — AED 219.00

The workers’ protection insurance scheme, which replaced the older bank guarantee system. Instead of the employer depositing a large refundable guarantee per worker, an insurance policy covers the same exposure at a far lower per-employee cost.

What to watch: this is per worker and it is not optional. It is also frequently confused with the ILOE certificate below, which is a different product entirely.

3. Insurance certificate, involuntary loss of employment — AED 146.00

The ILOE scheme — unemployment insurance that pays a portion of salary for a limited period if an employee loses their job through no fault of their own. This line is the certificate within the visa file.

ILOE subscription is a separate ongoing obligation on the employee, with its own penalty for non-subscription. Our guide on how to subscribe to ILOE covers that side.

What to watch: the certificate on the visa file does not discharge the employee’s own subscription duty. Two different things, and people assume one covers the other.

4. Tawjeeh services — AED 204.78

Tawjeeh centres deliver worker orientation and awareness — explaining rights, obligations and the terms of the contract to the employee independently of the employer.

This connects directly to a MoHRE rule most employers do not know: employment contracts for workers at skill levels 6, 7, 8 and 9 are delivered to the worker at workers’ awareness centres, not handed over by the company. The Tawjeeh line is that step made concrete.

What to watch: it is a worker-protection measure, and it takes the employee’s time. Build it into onboarding rather than discovering it on the day.

5. Job offer letter — AED 278.00

The Ministry’s official job offer form, signed by both employer and employee. MoHRE requires this specific document — a company’s own letterhead offer is not a substitute.

Amer lines — the GDRFA and ICP side

6. Entry permit, company — AED 1,125.65 inside the country

The work entry visa. GDRFA describes it as giving the foreigner sixty days from the date of entry to complete the requirements for residency, and it requires MoHRE’s endorsement of the work permit first.

The published base is AED 200 plus 5% VAT, with a conditional AED 520 supplement when the sponsored person is inside the country. This is the line that falls for overseas applicants.

What to watch: the sixty-day clock starts on entry, not on approval.

7. Change status, company — AED 675.65

Converting an existing in-country status to the new employment status without leaving the UAE. It replaced the old “visa run” — a flight out and back purely to reset status.

What to watch: this line should not appear on a file for someone arriving from overseas. If it does, ask why.

8. Emirates ID form, two years — AED 385.41

The Emirates ID application, issued by ICP and running in step with the two-year residence. The card carries a permanent fifteen-digit identity number that stays with the holder for life, and it is the identifier that links records across every authority.

See our complete ICP guide.

What to watch: the ID is ICP’s even though it appears on an Amer breakdown. Different authority, same file.

9. DHA typing services, normal — AED 322.50

The Dubai Health Authority medical fitness application. Every applicant aged 18 and over sits the medical fitness test; the typing line is the application for it.

The word normal matters: express and VIP medical tiers exist at higher fees and shorter turnarounds. This breakdown is the standard tier.

What to watch: a medical referred for further investigation stops the residence until it clears, and it eats the sixty-day window. See our medical fitness test guide.

10. Visa stamping, employees, two years — AED 546.65

The residence issuance itself — the final immigration step. The name is a historical hangover: the UAE stopped placing residence stickers in passports, so the residence is now an electronic record and your Emirates ID is the document you carry.

What to watch: this is the line that completes the file. Until it is done, the employee is on an entry permit, not a residence.

What these numbers do not include

Being clear about the boundary is as important as the figures themselves.

Why your quote may not match these numbers exactly

If your sheet differs, it is usually one of these, and none of them means you are being overcharged.

• Different establishment category. The single largest variable. Check it first.
• Medical tier. Express and VIP carry higher fees.
• Inside versus outside the country. A difference of AED 1,195.65 on these figures.
• Free zone rather than mainland. Free zone companies often route immigration through the zone, with the zone’s own schedule. See free zone vs mainland.
• Emirate. These are Dubai figures, through Amer and DHA. Another emirate means ICP channels and a different schedule.
• Profession requiring a licence. Doctors, nurses, teachers, advocates and fitness trainers need a professional licence from the competent authority.
• Fee revisions. Authorities revise fees. These figures were checked in September 2026.
• GDRFA’s own caveat — the total may vary depending on the circumstances of the sponsored person.

The timeline: when each fee is actually incurred

The breakdown reads as a single bill, which makes it look like one payment on one day. It is not. The fees fall across a sequence that runs for several weeks, and knowing the order tells you where money is committed and where it can still be stopped.

Stage one: before the employee exists on paper

Nothing on the visa breakdown can begin until the company itself is in order. The establishment must hold a valid trade licence, a MoHRE establishment file, an immigration establishment card, and — critically — available electronic quota. None of these appear on the employee’s fee sheet, because they are company costs incurred earlier.

This is where a great many hires stop before they start. The candidate is ready, the budget is approved, and there is no quota. Our guide on checking and increasing company visa quota covers that step.

Stage two: the job offer and the work permit

The first two lines on the Tasheel side are incurred here — the job offer letter at AED 278.00 and the labour fees at whatever your category dictates. The offer must be the Ministry’s official form, signed by both parties, and the work permit application follows it.

The labour insurance line at AED 219.00 and the ILOE certificate at AED 146.00 attach around the same stage. So does Tawjeeh at AED 204.78.

For a Category 3 employer, this stage alone commits AED 4,395.91 — nearly sixty percent of the total file — before immigration has been involved at all. For a Category 1 employer it is closer to AED 1,173.07, or about twenty-eight percent.

Stage three: the entry permit

Once MoHRE has endorsed the work permit, the immigration side opens. The entry permit is issued — AED 1,125.65 for an inside-country applicant, or approximately AED 605.65 for someone arriving from abroad.

For an overseas hire, this is the moment the sixty-day clock is armed. It starts on entry, not on issuance, but everything after this point must fit inside it.

Stage four: status change, if applicable

An inside-country applicant is converted to the employment status here, at AED 675.65. An overseas applicant skips this entirely, because entering on the employment entry permit establishes the status at the airport.

Stage five: medical and biometrics

DHA typing at AED 322.50 covers the medical fitness application, and the Emirates ID line at AED 385.41 covers the identity application. Both involve the employee attending in person, and both are outside the employer’s direct control.

This is the stage that most often slips. A medical referred for further investigation halts everything downstream and consumes the sixty-day window without warning.

Stage six: residence issuance

Visa stamping at AED 546.65 completes the file. Until this is done the employee holds an entry permit, not a residence — a distinction that matters enormously if they try to travel, open a bank account or sponsor family in the interim.

Understanding establishment categories properly

Since a single classification decides the largest variable on the sheet, it deserves more than a passing mention.

MoHRE classifies establishments and prices work permits by that classification. The Ministry sets the criteria, and the direction of travel is consistent: sustained compliance keeps a company in a favourable category, while breaches push it down. MoHRE’s published conditions for issuing a work permit include that the establishment must maintain a valid licence without any registered violations resulting in suspension of its operations — and its wider powers include downgrading an establishment’s classification as a consequence of non-compliance.

We are deliberately not publishing a points table or a list of thresholds here, because MoHRE sets and revises those criteria and we will not reproduce a version we cannot verify against a current published source. What we can say with confidence is what the classification does, because the fee schedule proves it.

The practical point for a business owner is simple. If your labour fee line reads AED 3,474.63 rather than AED 1,208.57 or AED 251.79, that is not a fixed cost of operating in the UAE. It is a consequence, and consequences can be worked on.

The lifetime cost of one employee’s paperwork

Employers budget for the first visa and rarely model the renewals. Over a six-year employment — an initial issuance plus two renewals — the picture looks like this, on the inside-country figures.

Renewals drop the entry permit, the change of status and the job offer letter, since none is required again for the same employer. That removes AED 1,125.65 + AED 675.65 + AED 278.00 = AED 2,079.30 from each renewal cycle.

Over six years, one employee costs a Category 3 employer roughly AED 18,197 in government fees against AED 8,528 for a Category 1 employer — a difference of nearly AED 9,700 per head, for identical paperwork.

Across thirty employees that is approximately AED 290,000 over six years. It does not appear in any budget line called “compliance”, which is precisely why it goes unmanaged.

Patterns worth questioning on a quote

Now that you have the reference figures, here is what actually tends to be wrong with quotes people bring us.

If you are a small employer, start here

For an owner hiring their first two or three people, the useful summary is short.

• Check quota before anything else. No quota, no hire, regardless of budget.
• Find out your category. It is the single largest variable, and most owners do not know theirs.
• Check the candidate has no active work permit. The most common blocker, and free to check.
• Budget the whole file, not the visa. Between AED 3,033 and AED 7,452 in government fees depending on category and origin, plus health insurance, plus any service fee.
• If hiring from overseas, be ready before they land. Sixty days sounds generous until the medical is referred.
• Keep the establishment card and licence current. Both gate everything and both expire quietly.

If the employee leaves before the two years are up

The fees above buy a two-year permit and a two-year residence. If the employment ends after four months, none of it is refunded — and there is a further cost to close the file properly.

Cancellation is the sponsor’s obligation, not the employee’s, and MoHRE handles the work permit and employment contract as a single cancellation. The residence is cancelled on the immigration side, and the Emirates ID is cancelled automatically as part of that process.

The commercial reality is worth stating plainly. A Category 3 employer whose hire leaves at six months has spent AED 7,451.77 in government fees for six months of employment, plus the cancellation cost, plus whatever the recruitment itself cost. The same departure costs a Category 1 employer roughly AED 4,229.

This is the argument for pre-checking a candidate’s status and getting the offer right, rather than treating the visa as an administrative afterthought once the hire is agreed. Our guide on cancelling an employment visa covers the process, and labour bans explained covers what does and does not follow a resignation.

The wider first-year cost of an employee

The visa file is one component. For budgeting purposes, an employer should expect several others that never appear on a Tasheel or Amer sheet.

A business planning headcount on the visa figure alone will under-budget. The visa is the most visible cost, not the largest.

Dubai versus the other emirates

Everything in this guide is a Dubai file: MoHRE labour fees processed through Tasheel, immigration processed through GDRFA and Amer, medical through DHA.

Outside Dubai, the structure changes on the immigration side. Residency is administered by ICP rather than GDRFA, through ICP’s own channels and fee schedule. ICP publishes its residence permit fees as an application fee, an issuance fee per year and a smart service fee, each at AED 100 on its own service card — a different structure entirely from the Amer lines above.

Two things do not change wherever you are:

• The MoHRE labour fees are federal. Category 1, 2 and 3 pricing applies nationally.
• The Emirates ID is always ICP. Every emirate, every resident.

So a company comparing costs across emirates is comparing the immigration half only. Our guides to GDRFA and ICP versus GDRFA set out which authority holds which file.

Free zone companies

Free zones frequently administer immigration through the zone’s own authority, with its own schedule, and often bundle establishment-level costs into packages. That means the five Amer lines in this guide may not appear in the same form on a free zone quote.

What remains constant is the MoHRE side, since federal labour law and the work permit categories apply in most zones, and the Emirates ID, which no zone issues.

The practical advice when comparing a free zone package against a mainland quote is to insist both are itemised to the same level. A bundled zone package and an itemised Amer breakdown are not comparable documents, and the comparison usually flatters whichever one is bundled. See free zone vs mainland visas.

How this guide compares to other visa costs

For context, since employers and individuals often weigh routes against each other:

The structural difference worth noting: an employment residence ties your right to remain to a specific employer, and the employer carries the cost. The self-sponsored routes cost more up front and remove that dependency entirely — which is why people who have waited on an unresponsive employer tend to pursue them.

Why we publish this

A reasonable question, since publishing a complete government fee schedule removes the information asymmetry most of this industry runs on.

Three reasons. First, we do not mark up government fees, so showing them costs us nothing. Second, a client who understands their own file is a better client to work with — the conversations are shorter and the expectations are accurate. Third, and most practically: if you read this and conclude you can handle it yourself, you probably can, and we would rather you did that than pay someone a bundled fee for something you did not understand.

What we sell is diagnosis, sequencing and calendar ownership, not access to numbers that are published anyway. Our fees page sets out what we charge on top of government cost, and our visa cost estimator lets you model your own file before speaking to anybody.

The summary, in one place

Figures marked with a tilde are derived rather than observed, as explained above. Everything else is reproduced from actual Tasheel breakdowns or published authority schedules.

Keep the paperwork: what to file and why

One habit separates companies that can answer questions about their own files from those that cannot, and it costs nothing.

Keep every fee breakdown. Not the total, the itemised sheet. It is the only record of what was paid to whom, and it is what lets you compare next year’s quote against this year’s. When a provider’s price moves, the breakdown tells you whether a government fee changed or a service charge did.

Keep the receipts separately from the quote. A quote is a proposal; a receipt is proof of payment to the authority. MoHRE publishes a receipts service among its enquiry channels for exactly this reason, and the two documents serve different purposes in a dispute.

Keep the Ministry job offer and the registered contract. Not the HR letter — the Ministry’s form and the MoHRE-registered contract. If there is ever a disagreement about terms, these are the documents that decide it.

Record the dates, not just the amounts. Work permit issue date, residence issue date, Emirates ID expiry, and for overseas hires the date of entry that started the sixty-day clock. The amounts are one-off; the dates recur, and it is the dates that generate the next bill.

For an employee, the same principle applies in miniature. Keep a copy of what was paid on your behalf, keep your registered contract, and know your own permit and residence dates. If your employer ever asks you to contribute to these costs, the breakdown in this guide tells you precisely what is being recovered and from which line.

How to audit any employment visa quote in five minutes

You now have enough to check any quote you are given. Work through it in this order.

• Ask for the breakdown, not the total. Fee, transaction charge, tax, total — per line. A provider who will not itemise is the answer to your question.
• Find the labour fee line. It should sit at roughly AED 252, AED 1,209 or AED 3,475 depending on category. If it does not match your category, ask why.
• Check the nine fixed lines. They should total AED 3,903.64 for an inside-country file. If they are materially different, something non-standard is on the sheet.
• Check whether change status belongs there. Overseas applicant? It should be absent, saving AED 675.65.
• Check the entry permit line. Inside-country files carry GDRFA’s AED 520 supplement. Outside-country files should not.
• Add it up yourself. The line items must equal the total. On one of the sheets behind this guide they differ by ten fils — harmless, but you only know because you checked.
• Separate the service fee. Whatever a provider charges for handling this should be a distinct, visible line, not folded into the government figures.

Who is supposed to pay

This matters, and it is misunderstood on both sides of the table.

The costs above are employment costs borne by the employer. UAE labour legislation prohibits recovering recruitment and work permit costs from the worker, and MoHRE treats charging employees for their own permit as a serious matter rather than a commercial arrangement between consenting parties.

In practice, employees are sometimes asked to pay — occasionally framed as a deposit, a loan against salary, or a deduction “until the visa is settled”. If that is happening to you, the amounts in this guide tell you exactly what is being recovered, which is the first step to addressing it. Our guide on how to file a MoHRE complaint covers the route, and it is free to use.

We are stating the principle rather than quoting an article number, because we only cite provisions we have verified directly. If you need the specific legal basis for a dispute, take advice on it.

What happens in two years: the renewal picture

The work permit and residence both run for two years, so the file comes round again. Renewal is not a lighter version of the original — MoHRE’s published condition is that all residence issuance requirements must be maintained when applying for renewal.

What changes at renewal:

MoHRE allows renewal from 60 days before expiry. There is no advantage in waiting, and a residence that lapses moves into a tiered grace period and then AED 50 per day — see our guide to the residence visa grace period.

Three worked scenarios

Composite illustrations built strictly on the figures above, not accounts of identifiable clients.

Scenario one: a Category 2 company hiring locally

A candidate already in Dubai on a visit visa, joining a Category 2 establishment.

Government fees: AED 5,185.71. The status change (AED 675.65) applies because the candidate is inside the country, and the entry permit carries GDRFA’s AED 520 inside-country supplement.

The trap: the visit visa has its own expiry. If it lapses before the change of status completes, overstay fines begin on the individual and the file becomes more complicated than the AED 675.65 it was trying to save.

Scenario two: the same company hiring from overseas

Identical role, candidate recruited from abroad.

Government fees: approximately AED 3,990.06 — AED 1,195.65 less. No status change, no inside-country supplement.

The trap: the sixty-day clock from entry. If the medical is referred, or the Emirates ID biometrics slip, or the establishment card turns out to have expired, the window closes and overstay fines land on the applicant who has just arrived.

Scenario three: a Category 3 company that could be Category 1

Twenty employees, all renewing across a two-year cycle.

The same twenty visas, the same documents, the same authorities — and a difference of roughly AED 64,000 every two years, determined by the company’s compliance record. Our guide on why UAE companies need PRO services covers what feeds that classification.

Employment visa cost questions

If you would rather have the whole sequence priced and handled in one place, that is our PRO services in Dubai offering — government fees at cost, no mark-up.

For the wider picture — every published government fee across residence, labour, Emirates ID and establishment cards in one table — see our PRO services cost reference for Dubai.