Q: Hello Sir, A friend of mine was offered a job in Dubai on a visit visa, and he is working at the company for almost past 4 months on the same visa. Last month, his visit visa was expired and overstayed. The company had cleared his overstay and has issued him yet another visit visa for a month. Now, whenever he asks the HR for work visa status, he is not getting a proper reply. My friend says he does not want to continue, but the company has the passport and they are not giving him the passport. He knows that working on a visit visa is illegal in the UAE, and he wants to quit. What are his options? Should he contact the labour department or MOL? Will he be deported, fined and/ or jailed?

Q: If you are on visit visa and you overstay, will you have a ban or you pay penalties?

Q: Hi. I am here in the UAE on a visit visa. A company gave me an offer letter, but it's already 2 months since I'm working here and still, they did not process my employment visa. Now, my visit visa is going to expire soon. If they do not make my visa, can I file a case on the basis of offer letter? Where can I go for justice, and what do I have to do? Please advise me. Thanks

Q: Dear Sir/Madam, I joined a company in Abu Dhabi during the first week of February. My offer letter states that if I wish to leave before one month, no salary will be given, and if I leave within six months, one month's salary will be deducted. However, the company has not yet started to process my visa, and it has been two months. Can you please advise if I can leave the company immediately without serving the notice period?

Q: I have a friend who overstayed for 6 years. She ran away due to her rude employer who did not have her food and hurt her. So she ran away. He filed an absconding case against her and asked for an amount of 9k the total cost of her visa. She had no money at the time they encountered him at the police. The problem is she did not follow up or ask for help from other people, however. They scammed her with a bunch of money. I would like to know how can she move forward to work here in UAE. She has no passport right now with an absconding case and with a penalty of 64k as I checked her details.

Q: Dear Sir/Madam, I was on a visiting visa in Abu Dhabi. I overstayed and absconded from the travel agency. I now have a job offer. They said they would offer me a job if I cleared my absconding status. I paid my travel agency to remove my absconding status, but yesterday, they texted me screenshots showing that the application was returned. They said that I now need to go to SWEIHAN myself. I am afraid that I will be deported. Can anyone please guide me on this issue? I also have a PDF from the travel agency that shows the departure date as 30/12/2023. The reason written there is "CHANGE STATUS".

Q: Dear Sir/Madam, My company is not processing my visa, and I am already overstaying with fines. I want to leave them. Can I do it right away without giving them notice? I have signed the offer letter and contract since I joined them four months ago.

An interview-format article covering the topic of overstaying your tourist or resident visa in the UAE. This is from the legal podcast of lawyer Ludmila Yamalova, the founder of Lawgical with LYLAW. Ludmila discusses the aspects of overstaying, like fines, grace periods, exemptions...etc.

According to this Decree, tentative approval to admit a foreign worker for the purpose of employment in the UAE cannot be granted until an Employment Offer that conforms with the Standard Employment Contract is duly signed by the employee and presented to the Ministry of Labour.

The provisions of this Law, known as "UAE Labour Law", govern the relationship between employers and employees and other labour matters in the United Arab Emirates. There are special labour related regulations applicable in some of the free zones in the UAE.

The provisions of this Decree-Law, known as "New UAE Labor Law", govern labour relations in the private sector of the United Arab Emirates. The New Labor Law repeals the previous UAE Labor Law (Federal Law No. (8) of 1980).