Questions & Answers - Legal Advice Middle East

Adultery or affair is a ground for divorce not compensation

Q: My husband email was open on my computer and I found out he is having a relationship with someone else and I even have her whole contact and name information. Can I claim in court against her for ruining my marriage relationship? All the time my husband lies that he works in Abu Dhabi and leaves us alone to spend time with her.

Labour ban and payment of visa costs upon resignation

Q: I am a nurse. My joining date is June 20, 2018, and I will be resigning on Dec 24, 2018 (I gave my 1-month notice last month). My contract is unlimited. The company is asking me to compensate them for the cost of my visa...etc. Is it legal? And is their an automatic ban? Thanks

Checking a travel ban for leaving job without resignation

Q: Hi I have received a visit visa though I had left Dubai without informing my employer years ago. Will there be a problem when entering?

Labour law claims are time barred after one year

Q: I have worked for a company in a senior management role for two years and resigned due to my personal reasons. My resignation was accepted and I was asked to hand over the charge to new management since more than one year ago now. My visa was also cancelled after a few months of my resignation. The new management took the charge and could not manage the business efficiently after my exit, and the business which resulted in the termination of the new management. The company is now blaming me that during my tenure with the company earlier, there was some wrong decision taken which has caused losses to the company. The company now wants to file a legal case against me. I am getting several threatening messages and calls to come back and resolve the old issues, which is causing me mental torture and disturbance in my family. I am not in a position to help the company to recover their irreparable damages now. Please advise what is the UAE labour law for such a situation.

Procedure and cost of appealing a labour court judgement

Q: What is the process to appeal a decision made in the labour court? And what is the cost included for the lawyer fee? I need to know the court costs. I am the employer. Judgement was made in my absence and I have a proof these employees were paid.

Criminal case on a bounced cheque for pending loan

Q: Over AED 200k or under AED 200k? I am confused as to how my police case will be treated by the police/justice system based on the 200k rule. The bounced cheque was for AED 235,000. However, my outstanding balance with the bank is around AED150,000. The cheque is slightly above 200k yet the outstanding balance is below 200k. Is it safe to assume I`m being treated as though the cheque was under 200k? How do I find out sure? I only received a paper with my photo on it which the policeman asked me to sign. I have no idea what I signed as it is all in Arabic. Secondly, why did the airport police take my passport? I thought the police no longer confiscate passports for loan cases due to the new `smart bail `system. My visa is up for renewal in 1 month. Can I get my passport back from the police (even just temporarily) to renew my visa? If I can`t renew my visa, I can`t work and won`t be able to pay anything. As long as I renew visa and keep my job, I can settle the loan in around 6 months. Thanks

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The legal way of changing the local partner in an LLC

Q: I have signed 5 years ago a side agreement when forming a Dubai onshore LLC trading company, and I now realize that there is no termination clause. One clause says that the contract is signed for 10 years and that it will be renewed after 10 years. As a result, the company who provided me with the local sponsor wants to charge me a hefty "penalty" for agreeing to change the sponsor. Besides, they are holding all details (online access codes and password) to deal with the Ministry of Labor. So I have no liberty to change the sponsor unless I pay them a lot of money. I am bound with them because only they can properly cancel my employees` visas if I wanted to recreate a new company. Are such indefinite and abusive side agreements legal? Do I have any recourse to enforce a change of sponsor without paying the "penalty" they are requesting? Thanks

Complaint regarding management of company post termination

Q: I have worked for a company in a senior management role for two years and resigned due to my reasons. My resignation was accepted on 15th November 2017 and I was asked to hand over the charge to new management since more than one year ago now. My visa was also cancelled in August 2018 after a few months of my resignation. The new management took the charge and could not manage the business efficiently after my exit, and the business which resulted in the termination of the new management. The company is now blaming me that during my tenure with the company earlier, there was some wrong decision taken which has caused losses to the company. The company now wants to file a legal case against me. I am getting several threatening messages and calls to come back and resolve the old issues, which is causing me mental torture. I am not in a position to help the company to recover their irreparable damages now. Please advise what is the UAE labour law for such a situation.

The right of claiming child custody by the father

Q: Child custody question. Divorce in Dubai. Minor son is 4 years old. If the father is Muslim and mother is non-Muslim, what are the requirements of the father to get custody of the child? Is the relative who has to stay with father required to be a Muslim? Will a 1-bedroom apartment be sufficient?

Paying fine does not cancel the financial liability of a debt

Q: Hello I am writing to ask about a civil case, I recently went on maternity leave and my company does not pay a salary in this period. The bank filed a criminal case so I was stopped at the airport on arrival and processed at the police station. The next day I went in front of a judge who asked if I had the money to pay at that time or pay a fine, so I paid the AED 10000 fine. It`s been almost 3 months and the bank keeps increasing my debt (my account is on minus). Question is, should I go to court again to ask them to get the bank to issue a clearance certificate or what should I do?

The effect of rental cheque bounce on visa renewal

Q: Hello Sir, Two of my rental cheque got bounced and the real estate filed a police case against me. I want to know how can I renew my visa after this. Thank you

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Marriage procedure in Dubai if the bride is in a different country

Q: Hi, I am a Pakistani living in Dubai for the last four years and the person I want to get married is an Egyptian national but she is divorced, and living and working in Oman. My question is to get to know if it is possible for us to get married in Dubai, and if yes, then what is the procedure and how much is the legal cost here to get married?

Employee's right to work for a client after resignation

Q: I was working before with an outsourcing company that provides services in the government sector. I finished my visa with them and did not renew; I resigned. The government sector asked me to join for employment. When I joined them, the contract between them was already finished. Now, my previous company is accusing me that they lost the client because I joined. What will I do?

Employment fraud and working just for a visit visa period

Q: Dear Sir/Ma`am This is Muhammad Usama Ali with you. Actually, I`m from Pakistan and I was interested in working in Dubai. Meanwhile, my contact was with a person who used to say that I am the owner of the company in Dubai. At that time, that person needed staff for his company and I also wanted a good job. Meanwhile, he talked about my job and told me that he will get some money from me for the visa. So I asked him how much money I have to pay for the visa. He told me all the money. And then I asked him about the post and he said to me we hire you for a job of a purchaser. I agreed to this post and he told me that you have to pay visa money in advance. The money he invited me to his Pakistani friend`s account. I sent the full amount to the account listed and given by him in Pakistan. Instead of giving me a work permit he gave me a visit visa. I worked for him for one & half month and my visit visa was also for one month and my visa period has expired.

Holding visa cancellation and EOSB after termination

Q: I have an expired DMCC free zone visa and my company terminated me, how I can cancel my visa? Note that the company have no serious response in the subject.

Threatening with an embezzlement case for claiming labour dues

Q: I was working in a company for the past 2 years. I was given the duty of processing visas for the staff and labours and also for licensing the company. So they used to issue payments to me. Due to doing the work through agents, very few receipts were submitted. But I kept a record of all the payments made and reported the same to the company on a day-to-day basis. Now, they have terminated my services and when I submitted my settlement dues, they said they need to do auditing for doubts of embezzlement, only after that they will pay my dues. Also, I heard from my colleague that they want to put a case against me so as to not pay me any money. The termination letter was served to me and mentioned no need for a notice period of 30 days. To win the case they will go to any extent and they are rich too. I have no records to prove my innocence. What should I do? I didn`t lodge any complaint yet in the labour court.