Q: My previous company filed an absconding case against me in December 2020. The reason for them filing the case was down to the company refusing to pay the visa fines that had incurred due to not canceling or completing the residency visa. Within 60 days period, I approached immigration who told me to contact the company to apply for absconding withdrawal which I did. The company then requested I pay AED 4,800 to cover the cost of applying and withdrawing the case and cover visa fines. As I didn't have that amount of money to hand, it took me a few months to get the money together. As of May 2021, the absconding case was officially withdrawn. Now the company is requesting I pay AED 8,500 in fines in order to cancel the employment entry permit. How can I go about waiving or reducing this fine? I don't have AED 8,500 to pay the fine. The company won't help me either. I am in a very difficult financial situation and have been offered new employment. Any advice would be helpful. Thank you.

Q: Hello Team I have an absconding case on which I have already managed with my sponsor due to not leaving the country, however, they have requested to pay them a penalty to remove the case which I did but now I have overstay fines. So I went to them again after paying the fines for removing the absconding as they have advised me to proceed with removing the absconding case that I will have to clear my overstay fines first. So they gave me a copy of the NOC that there is no objection in removing the absconding from immigration and applying for a waiver. My question is, will my petition to discount waiver be accepted even though I do have an absconding case on me and will this NOC work or not? I also have several reasons for overstaying as there weren’t flights back then when Covid was at the high peak and I had my passport getting renewed which I also have a letter from the embassy stating that.

Q: I have been on a visit visa. I found a job with a company. My visa expired. The company is telling me to lie to immigration that they just hired me. They told me that I should cry so immigration has mercy and forgive the overstay. The manager said that I should go to the airport and cry there. I am Ugandan. Please advise me!

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.

The UAE has adopted a major reform in its legislative system that brought about 40 new laws and amendments to the company law, criminal law, personal status, among others. The amendments aim to develop the legislative structure in various sectors, the labor law being one of these, was the most recent. We try in this article to shed light on the changes introduced with the new labor law and their significance on both, the employer and employee.

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).

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.

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.