UAE Work Permit and the Labour Card: What Is Actually Published

The UAE work permit is what MOHRE issues and what the law requires; “labour card” is a name the federal portal still uses for the same step. It has not been abolished by anything we could find published. What follows is what is actually published, and what is not.

That distinction matters because the internet is confident about it and the authorities are not. This guide sets out the thirteen permit types and their published validity, the fee range, and exactly what the official record does and does not say about the labour card. Our PRO services desk handles permits and renewals; our guide to the establishment card and the labour file covers the company registrations a permit sits on top of.

The rule, in one line

From the federal portal’s work permits page, updated 24 September 2026: “it is illegal for a person to work in the UAE without a valid work permit”, under Article 6 of Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021. Employers “may not recruit or employ any worker unless a work permit is issued” in line with MOHRE procedures.

Everything else on this page is detail hanging off that sentence.

The thirteen work permit types and how long each lasts

All quoted from the same page. Where the validity column says not published, the portal lists the permit but gives it no term.

Two years is the default for most of them. The private teacher permit is the only one the portal says is free, and the portal adds that tutoring without one “will be subject to fines and penalties outlined in the applicable laws”.

What a work permit costs

“The cost of issuing and renewing a work permit ranges from AED 250 to AED 3,450”, and the figure depends on the company’s classification — A, B or C.

The portal explains the bottom of that scale plainly: “Companies with a history of violations and non-compliance will be placed in category C.” So the permit fee is partly a measure of the employer’s own record, which is worth knowing before you compare quotes between two companies.

No breakdown by category is published. If someone tells you precisely what category B pays, that number is not on the page.

The Work Bundle, and how much it shortened

The same page records what changed: processing went “from 30 working days to just 5 working days”, and the process went “from 15 (requiring 16 documents) to just 5 steps (requiring only 5 documents)”. The Work Bundle lets employers reach “the issuance, renewal, and cancellation of work permits and residency visas” together.

So what about the labour card?

This is the question the guide exists for, so here is the whole of the evidence rather than a verdict.

The federal portal still uses the term, on a current page. Its page on recruiting on the mainland, updated 28 September 2026, heads its first step “Stage 1: Applying for work permits/labour cards”, and later tells the employer to have the worker “obtain the labour card from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation”. One step, two names, on a page updated last month.

MOHRE still lists a labour card service. Its service catalogue includes “Labour Card Issuance — UAE/GCC Nationals”. We could not read that page: it is closed to automated requests by the ministry’s own robots file, and we did not work around it. Check MOHRE’s own page for what it covers.

The one official-looking statement that it was replaced is from 2012. ICP’s media centre carries an item headed “Emirates ID will replace Labour Card”. It is a Gulf News article dated 25 March 2012. It quotes a ministry spokesman saying the document “will now be replaced by the Emirates ID” and that there “will no longer be a need to have a labour card by the end of June”. It does not use the word abolished, and it attaches a condition about expatriate registration in the ID system.

A fourteen-year-old news item describing a plan is not a current rule, and the federal portal’s 2026 wording cuts the other way. So this guide does not tell you the labour card was abolished. It tells you the work permit is the thing the law names, that the portal uses both terms for the same step, and that the current status of a separate physical card for expatriate workers is not something we found published anywhere.

Before any of it: the company has to be ready

A permit is not the first step. From the same mainland recruiting page: “The employer must first approach the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation” for an eSignature card, which the ministry issues “only after inspecting the premises and verifying there are no violations”, and which is “a prerequisite for any application submitted by the employer.”

Then “After the issuance of the card, the employer can apply for pre-approval work permit for its employees.” And the ceiling on all of it: “The number of employees a company can hire depends on the quota approved by the ministry”, determined “according to the legal form of the company, the area of the premises”, and changeable “on request from the employer and the approval of the Ministry.”

What is not published anywhere official

• Whether the labour card is a physical document or a record. The federal portal does publish the step: its recruiting page, updated 28 September 2026, tells the employer to have the employee “obtain the labour card from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation”, and its mainland closure page, updated 6 April 2026, lists “Cancellation of labour cards through the Ministry of Human Resources & Emiratisation”. What neither page says is whether anything is handed over.
• What MOHRE’s “Labour Card Issuance — UAE/GCC Nationals” service covers. The page is closed to us.
• The fee for each classification. Only the AED 250 to AED 3,450 range is published, not what A, B or C each pays.
• Validity for the temporary, mission, part-time and freelance permits. The portal lists them without terms.
• How a company is moved between classifications, or how it gets out of category C.
• The quota formula. The portal names four factors — legal status, the size of the work facilities, the projects undertaken and business requirements — without publishing how they combine. Our guide to the company visa quota sets out all four and the fees around them.
• Any published renewal window — how early before expiry a permit may be renewed.

Our advice — practical guidance, not a rule

Marked as advice because no official page prescribes it.

1. Ask for the permit type by name. Thirteen exist and they do not carry the same term. “A work permit” is not an answer; “a transfer permit, two years” is.
2. Treat the labour card as a name, not a missing document. If an employer or a portal asks you for one, ask which registration they mean rather than assuming it no longer exists.
3. Settle the eSignature card and the premises before hiring anyone. The inspection sits at the front of the process and nothing moves past it.
4. Check the quota before you make an offer. It is set by legal form and premises area, and a signed offer you cannot sponsor helps nobody.
5. If the permit fee you are quoted sits high in the range, ask why. Classification is published as the driver, and category C is published as the violations category.
6. Do not let anyone work while a permit is pending. The prohibition is statutory and it is on the employee as well as the employer.

If you would rather have the permits, the quota and the company registrations tracked in one place, our PRO services team does that, and tells you when a figure is a published range rather than a price. Our guide to typing centres and document clearing explains who actually keys these applications in, our guide to the company visa quota covers how many permits a licence gets, and our guide to MOHRE employment contracts covers the contract the permit is issued against.

Frequently asked questions

What is a UAE work permit?

The permission MOHRE issues that makes employment lawful. Under Article 6 of Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021, “it is illegal for a person to work in the UAE without a valid work permit”, and an employer may not employ anyone until one is issued.

Is the labour card the same as the work permit?

The federal portal treats them as one step: its mainland recruiting page, updated 28 September 2026, heads the stage “Applying for work permits/labour cards”. MOHRE separately lists a labour card service for UAE and GCC nationals. We found no official statement that the two are distinct documents today.

Has the labour card been abolished in the UAE?

Not according to anything we found published. The only official-site statement is a Gulf News article from March 2012 on ICP’s media centre saying the Emirates ID would replace it, which describes a plan rather than a repeal. The federal portal used the term twice on pages updated in 2026 — obtaining the labour card on its recruiting page, and cancelling labour cards on its mainland closure page.

How long is a UAE work permit valid?

Two years for most types, including recruitment from outside the UAE, transfers, family-sponsorship residents, UAE and GCC nationals and golden visa holders. A juvenile permit is one year, a student training permit three months, and a national trainee permit twelve months renewable by mutual agreement.

How much does a UAE work permit cost?

“The cost of issuing and renewing a work permit ranges from AED 250 to AED 3,450”, depending on whether the company is classified A, B or C. The portal does not publish what each category pays.

How long does a work permit take?

The Work Bundle cut processing “from 30 working days to just 5 working days” and the process from fifteen steps needing sixteen documents to five steps needing five.

Can my company hire as many people as it wants?

No. “The number of employees a company can hire depends on the quota approved by the ministry”, set according to the legal form of the company and the area of the premises. It can be changed on request with the ministry’s approval.