Serving Saudi Arabia & the GCC • 
Recruiting from Pakistan • Govt. Licensed OEP-0664-Rawalpindi
A UAE work visa is not one document. It is a work permit issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, an entry permit that gets you into the country, and a residence visa that keeps you there — each with its own clock. Missing one of those clocks is what turns a straightforward posting into a fine.
This guide walks the eight steps from job offer to residence stamp, names the two deadlines that matter, and sets out who is legally responsible for the costs.
What this guide covers
Step 1 — Offer and contract
The employer makes a formal offer and prepares a standardised employment contract compliant with the requirements of the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation. Signing it is what triggers everything downstream, so read it before you sign rather than after. Our guide to checking an employment contract applies here too.
Step 2 — The employer applies to MOHRE
The work permit is applied for by the employer, not by you. The company must hold sufficient quota to employ another foreign worker, which depends on its registered workforce and compliance record. If an intermediary tells you that you can apply for your own UAE work visa, that is not how the system works.
Step 3 — The entry permit is issued
Once approved, the work permit that allows you to enter the country for employment is valid for two months from the date of issue. That is the first clock. Travel inside it.
Step 4 — Pakistan-side processing and attestation
Recruitment for overseas employment from Pakistan runs through a licensed Overseas Employment Promoter regardless of destination. In parallel, educational documents are attested — IBCC for matriculation and intermediate certificates, the Higher Education Commission for degrees — then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then the UAE mission. A police clearance certificate is usually required as well. Confirm the current chain for your document set before you start; our documents checklist explains how attestation chains work.
Step 5 — Protector of Emigrants registration
Before departure you must appear in person before the Protector of Emigrants together with your licensed promoter, and your agreement is examined and registered. This is a Pakistani legal requirement that applies to any overseas employment, not only to Saudi Arabia. See our guide to the Protector of Emigrants stamp.
Step 6 — Travel
Fly inside the entry permit’s two-month validity. If the Pakistan-side steps are going to run past it, say so early: a permit that lapses has to be reissued, and reissuing costs time you have already paid for once.
Step 7 — Medical, biometrics and Emirates ID
After arrival the sponsoring company arranges the medical fitness test, biometric capture and the Emirates ID application, along with the labour card. The medical screens for communicable diseases, typically by blood test and chest X-ray.
Step 8 — Residence visa stamping
The residence permit is stamped in your passport, completing the set. All of step seven and step eight has to happen inside sixty days of entry — the second clock.
The two clocks: two months and sixty days
The entry permit is valid for two months from issue. Separately, residency formalities must be completed within sixty days from the date of entry into the UAE. Those are two different periods measured from two different events, and confusing them is the most common error in the whole UAE work visa process.
Missing the second one has a price: a fine of AED 50 accrues for each day of overstay after the entry permit has expired or been cancelled, counted from the day after the applicable grace period ends. It is the employer’s responsibility to complete the formalities, but it is your passport the record sits against, so ask for written confirmation as each step completes.
Who pays for a UAE work visa
Under UAE labour legislation — Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the regulation of employment relations — recruitment and work permit costs sit with the employer, not the worker. If a UAE employer or a middleman asks you to pay for your own work permit, medical or Emirates ID, treat that as a serious warning sign and raise it with your licensed promoter before paying anything.
Frequently asked questions
Can I convert a visit visa into a UAE work visa?
Arrangements of that kind exist inside the country, but they are not the route a Pakistani worker should plan around. Travelling on a visit visa to look for work bypasses the Protector of Emigrants registration that Pakistani law requires before departure for employment, and it leaves you with no registered agreement to rely on.
How long is the residence visa valid?
It depends on the category and the employer’s arrangement, and it is renewed rather than permanent. Ask for the validity period in writing at the point of stamping, and diarise the renewal date yourself rather than relying on being reminded.
Does the same process apply to every emirate?
Work permits are issued federally through the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, but free zones operate their own authorities with their own procedures. Ask at the offer stage whether the role sits inside a free zone, because the answer changes who processes your paperwork.
Five things to establish before you accept the offer
Most problems on a UAE work visa are settled at the offer stage, in writing, in about four questions. Ask them before you sign, because afterwards you are negotiating from inside the process rather than outside it.
First, the exact job title, and confirmation that it is the title that will appear on the work permit. Second, whether the role sits on the mainland or inside a free zone, because that determines which authority processes your paperwork and how the timeline runs.
Third, confirmation that the company holds sufficient quota. An employer who cannot say yes to that question straight away is an employer whose UAE work visa application has not started. Fourth, written confirmation that the employer bears the work permit, medical, Emirates ID and insurance costs, as the labour legislation requires.
Fifth, the expected date of the entry permit. You need it because the permit runs for two months from issue, and your Pakistan-side attestation and Protector registration have to finish inside that window. An employer who understands the question is an employer who has done this before.
None of these five is an awkward question. A serious employer answers all of them in one email, and an employer who will not answer them has told you something useful about how the posting will go.
Working with a licensed promoter
Al Abbasi Enterprises has been licensed as an Overseas Employment Promoter since 1988 under licence OEP-0664-Rawalpindi and recruits for employers across the UAE. Official visa and residency information is published on the UAE Government portal, and we recommend confirming current timelines there before you travel.
See the roles we recruit for on our United Arab Emirates page, compare the visa processing time for Saudi Arabia, or contact our Rawalpindi office. We reply within one working day, in English, Arabic or Urdu.