Uae Work
Can UAE employers deduct visa and recruitment costs from your salary?
For employment covered by the UAE Labour Law, employers bear recruitment expenses, while notice compensation and certain probation arrangements are separate matters.
A deduction labelled “visa costs” can leave a worker paying for expenses that belong to the employer. For employment governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, employers cannot charge workers recruitment or employment costs, whether directly or indirectly. That principle matters both when accepting a job and when checking salary payments after joining.
The distinction becomes especially important when someone resigns. Recruitment expenses, compensation for failing to serve notice and payments between an outgoing and incoming employer are different issues. They should not be treated as one general debt owed by the worker. Understanding those categories helps jobseekers assess an offer, employees question a deduction and employers handle onboarding and departures without confusing business hiring costs with an employee’s separate contractual obligations. The starting point is to identify exactly what the requested payment covers and who the relevant legal provision makes responsible for it.
The core rule: recruitment costs belong to the employer
Article 6 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations prohibits employers from charging workers recruitment or employment costs, directly or indirectly. For employment relationships governed by this law, deducting those costs from salary does not make the charge permissible.
The employer’s responsibility covers recruitment-related hiring and travel expenses, visa issuance, medical tests and the employee’s residence permit. It also extends to relevant recruitment-agency fees and employment-related formalities after arrival.
The important question is what a payment actually covers. Calling an amount an administration charge, processing fee or reimbursement does not change its nature if it is a way of passing the employer’s recruitment or employment expenses to the worker.
Visa, residence permission and a work permit are different
The phrase “visa costs” often bundles several employment-related processes together. However, visa issuance, a residence permit and a work permit are not interchangeable documents or permissions.
Article 6 establishes the requirement for a valid work permit issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, or MOHRE, for employment within its scope. Residence permission is a separate matter: it should not be treated as a substitute for the required authorisation to work.
For employers, these distinctions matter when explaining onboarding expenses. For workers, they help identify what a proposed salary deduction relates to. Separating the items makes the charge clearer; it does not transfer the employer’s recruitment-cost responsibility to the employee.
Check the job offer before travelling
Before travelling to the UAE for employment, a worker should understand the job title, duties, salary, benefits and working conditions. These are central terms of the employment arrangement, not details to leave until after arrival.
Workers should also receive an annex to the job offer explaining their rights and responsibilities under the Labour Law. Requesting and retaining a copy of the offer provides a useful reference when discussing pay or onboarding arrangements later.
If an offer says that visa or recruitment expenses will be recovered through monthly deductions, raise that wording before signing. A payment schedule does not change the underlying prohibition on charging workers those costs.
Resignation does not turn visa costs into an employee debt
An employer cannot treat the decision to resign, by itself, as a reason to recover recruitment or visa expenses from the worker. Those expenses need to be distinguished from any separate obligation arising from how the employment relationship ends.
Notice compensation is one such separate issue. Under Article 43, an employee who leaves without completing the applicable contractual notice period may have to compensate the employer through payment in lieu of notice. That obligation can arise even without direct harm to the employer.
This is not the same as repaying a visa bill. When discussing a proposed payment on departure, identify whether it concerns unserved notice or recruitment expenses rather than accepting a single, unexplained resignation charge.
During probation, distinguish the worker from the new employer
Probation introduces another important distinction. Article 9 provides for the new employer to compensate the original employer for recruitment or contracting costs in the circumstances covered by that provision, unless otherwise agreed.
An obligation placed on a new employer is not the same as an obligation placed on the worker. It should not be presented as blanket permission to deduct recruitment expenses from the departing employee’s salary.
A contract clause mentioning recruitment-cost repayment must therefore be considered alongside the statutory prohibition on charging workers. The presence of such wording does not, by itself, establish that the employee legally owes the amount. Keep any notice-related obligation separate from a proposed transfer of hiring costs.
How to address a proposed deduction
If a salary deduction is described as a visa or recruitment charge, ask for an itemised written explanation. Identify the expense, the amount and the stated reason for making the employee pay it. Compare that explanation with the job offer and any written pay arrangements.
The purpose is to isolate the actual issue: an employer’s hiring expense, compensation for unserved notice or a payment involving a new employer. These categories have different legal foundations and should not be combined under a vague label.
For employers, the practical approach is to keep recruitment expenditure separate from employee pay liabilities. Explain notice obligations accurately, avoid treating resignation as automatic permission to recover onboarding costs, and distinguish any employer-to-employer arrangement from a deduction charged to the worker.
