A housemaid is not a dependant.
Families say "I want to put my maid on my visa" and mean something that does not exist. You are not sponsoring a family member. You are hiring an employee, under a labour law, with duties that are written down and enforceable against you.
Once that lands, the rest of the process makes sense. Before it lands, nothing does.
The thing most families get wrong on day one
The route is different from every other page in this series.
Sponsoring a wife, a child or a parent is an immigration transaction with GDRFA. Employing a domestic worker is a labour transaction with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, which then produces a residence outcome.
| Family member | Domestic worker | |
|---|---|---|
| Governing framework | Residence and entry rules | Federal Decree-Law 9 of 2022, amended by 21 of 2023 |
| Primary authority | GDRFA Dubai | MoHRE, then residence |
| Your legal role | Sponsor | Employer |
| Contract | None | Ministry-approved standard contract, copy given to the worker |
| Ongoing duties | Health insurance, valid residence | Wages, rest, leave, accommodation, meals, medical care, return ticket |
| If the relationship ends | Cancel the dependant visa | Employment termination, with a three-month window for claims |
Everything downstream follows from that second column.
Which jobs actually count as domestic work
Nineteen occupations are classified as domestic work, and the list is broader than people expect.
Housemaid, sailor, guard, shepherd, jockey, tamer, falcon care-taker, worker, housekeeper, cook, nanny or babysitter, farm worker or grower, gardener, personal trainer or coach, private tutor, home nurse, personal assistant, private agricultural engineer, and personal or family driver.
Read that list again if you employ a private tutor or a personal trainer, because a lot of Dubai households are running an informal arrangement that the law classifies as domestic employment.
Who can be employed, and who cannot
The age rule is absolute. Employment as a domestic worker is prohibited for anyone under 18.
You will hear about an upper age limit as well, commonly quoted at 60. We could not confirm that on a live official page while writing this, so we are not going to state it as a rule. Ask MoHRE or a Tadbeer centre before you recruit somebody in their late fifties or sixties, because if the limit exists it decides your whole plan.
The worker also keeps their own documents. The law leaves personal identification with the worker, and an employer holding a passport is not exercising a right they have. This is the single most common lawful-looking practice in Dubai households that is not lawful.
The income condition, and why we will not quote you a number
Every article on this subject quotes a household income requirement of AED 25,000, evidenced by a salary certificate or three months of bank statements.
We could not verify that figure on a live MoHRE page while writing this, and MoHRE's service pages were not reachable from our connection. So here is the honest position rather than a confident one.
There is an income condition. It is real, and it is checked. We are not able to tell you today what the current number is from a source we can link you to, and we are not going to repeat a figure from other blogs and let you budget against it.
Ask the Tadbeer centre or MoHRE directly, before you commit to anything, and get the answer in writing. If the number is 25,000 you need to know that in week one, not after you have paid a recruitment fee.
What you are signing up for as an employer
These are published obligations, not best practice. They apply from the day the contract starts.
| Obligation | What the law requires |
|---|---|
| Wages | Paid as set out in the standard contract, within 10 days of the due date |
| Weekly rest | One day of paid rest per week |
| Daily rest | 12 hours of rest per day, including at least 8 consecutive hours |
| Annual leave | No less than 30 days, paid |
| Sick leave | Up to 30 days per year |
| Healthcare | Medical care or health insurance |
| Living costs | Appropriate accommodation, meals and clothing |
| Travel | A round-trip ticket home every two years |
| Documents | The worker retains their own personal identification documents |
| Contract | The ministry-approved template, with a copy given to the worker |
Two of these get broken in Dubai homes constantly and neither is ambiguous. The weekly rest day. And the eight consecutive hours.
A live-in arrangement where someone is available from six in the morning until eleven at night, six or seven days a week, is not a demanding job. It is outside the published rest entitlements, and a claim can be brought for three months after employment ends.
The Tadbeer route versus doing it yourself
Tadbeer centres are the MoHRE-supervised route. They handle recruitment and employment of domestic workers for Emirati and resident families, and they exist precisely so that households are not improvising a labour relationship.
The practical trade-off is money against risk.
Going through a Tadbeer centre costs more up front and hands you a compliant contract, a screened worker and somebody to call when the arrangement goes wrong. Doing it yourself, typically by transferring somebody already in the country, is cheaper and puts the entire compliance burden on you as a first-time employer.
We recommend the centre for first-time employers, without much hesitation. Not because the alternative is impossible, but because the failure modes of getting it wrong are wage claims and immigration status problems for a person living in your house.
The medical, and the one difference that applies here
The medical fitness test applies as it does to any residence, with one addition that is specific to this route.
Pregnancy testing applies to female domestic workers. That is in the DHA screening framework, and it does not apply to a sponsored spouse or an adult child on a family file.
Everything else is the standard screen: blood collection and a chest X-ray, with HIV and tuberculosis screened for everyone. Syphilis and hepatitis B attach to specific occupational groups, and domestic work is one of the categories where the wider panel is relevant.
The general test is covered in the Dubai medical fitness test, and the family-file version is on the dependant medical test.
What it costs, honestly
We are not going to publish a total, because we would be making most of it up.
What we can tell you is the shape of the bill, so you can ask the right questions at the centre.
- RecruitmentThrough a Tadbeer centre, this is the largest single line and it varies by source country and by centre. Get it quoted in writing, itemised, before you sign anything.
- Work permit and residenceMoHRE describes its domestic worker permit service as free of charge except for federal fees, delivered through its website and smart app. The federal fees are the real number, and they are not zero.
- Medical fitness and Emirates IDThe same steps as any residence, at the published rates. Predictable and comparatively small.
- InsuranceMedical care or health insurance is your obligation, not an optional extra. Price it as a recurring cost, not a one-off.
- OngoingWages, accommodation, meals, clothing, and a return ticket every two years. The two-year ticket is the line people forget when they budget, and then meet as a surprise.
Anyone quoting you a single all-in number without asking your source country has not costed your situation.
When it goes wrong: the three situations we see
Three situations, all of them avoidable.
The worker leaves without notice. The employment relationship has a formal end and it has to be recorded. Families who simply stop paying and assume the visa lapses discover an active residence attached to their file, and a person who may bring a claim for three months after termination. Cancel it properly. The mechanics are the same family of transaction as cancelling a family visa.
The informal transfer. Somebody already in the UAE, on another household's file, starts working for you while the paperwork "gets sorted". That worker is now employed by a person who is not their sponsor. It is the single most common arrangement we are asked to regularise, and it is regularised by doing the transfer properly, not by waiting.
The passport in the drawer. Held with good intentions, usually described as keeping it safe. The law leaves personal identification documents with the worker. If you are holding one, give it back, today, and buy a lockable box for the household instead.
MSM files these from Deira alongside family and labour work. If you are not sure whether your arrangement is an employment relationship or a favour, ask us before it becomes a claim. Start at document clearing services.