Employer of Record in the UAE
We hold the visa, run the payroll on the Wage Protection System, and carry the legal employer relationship. You direct the work. The fastest legal way for a global company to land its first Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or Sharjah hire without spending 12 weeks setting up a UAE entity.
Onboard your first UAE hire
First employee productive in two to four weeks. No UAE entity required. Fixed monthly fee.
Get an EOR quoteBundle EOR with UAE recruitment
Our UAE recruitment practice finds the candidate, our EOR holds the employment. One contract, one invoice.
See UAE recruitmentTalent Arabia is an Employer of Record (EOR) provider in the UAE. We are the legal employer of your hire on paper. We hold the employment visa, register the contract with MoHRE, pay salary through the Wage Protection System, contribute end-of-service gratuity accruals, manage leave, and handle terminations or repatriations. You direct the day-to-day work. The model lets global companies hire in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and the UAE free zones without standing up a local entity, a mainland LLC, or a free zone licence. ISO 9001:2015 and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified.
2-4w
Onboarding time
0
UAE entity required
7
Emirates covered
2
ISO Certifications
Why an EOR (versus setting up your own UAE entity)
Hire in the UAE without the 12-week entity build
Setting up a UAE mainland LLC or a free zone entity takes 8 to 16 weeks and locks in fixed costs. EOR onboards your first hire in 2 to 4 weeks.
Fast: 2 to 4 weeks
Signed offer to UAE residency visa, Emirates ID, and first WPS salary in a typical four-week cycle. Setting up your own entity, opening the bank account, and getting your first establishment card runs three to four months.
Predictable cost
Fixed monthly EOR fee per employee on top of full burdened comp. No establishment card fees, free zone licence renewals, PRO retainers, audit fees, or VAT registration overhead.
UAE Labour Law compliant
Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021 contracts, WPS payroll, end-of-service gratuity accruals, leave entitlements, and probation periods all set up correctly from day one. No DIY mistakes that surface at termination.
What is included
End-to-end UAE EOR stack
Everything a UAE entity owner would have to build, do, and pay for, handled by us.
UAE employment contract
Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021 compliant fixed-term contract, with probation, notice, and gratuity properly structured.
Residency visa and Emirates ID
Employment visa, medical, Emirates ID, and dependent visas if applicable, handled through our PRO network.
WPS payroll
Monthly salary paid through the Wage Protection System with MoHRE-compliant payslips and audit trail.
Health insurance
Mandatory health insurance arranged at competitive group rates. Tier upgrades available on request.
End-of-service gratuity
Gratuity accrued monthly under the post-2022 calculation (21 days per year for the first five years, 30 thereafter) and held in trust.
Leave and absence tracking
Annual leave, sick leave, public holidays, and maternity all tracked under UAE Labour Law entitlements.
When EOR is the right choice
Typical UAE EOR use cases
Global tech and SaaS scale-ups landing their first UAE seller. You have a sales lead in Dubai but no UAE entity. EOR lets you onboard them in three weeks instead of waiting four months for a free zone licence. When UAE revenue justifies it, you migrate them to your own entity.
Consulting and agency firms with a single UAE client engagement. One UAE-based consultant for a 12-month engagement does not justify a JLT free zone licence. EOR keeps the commercial relationship clean while you stay compliant.
Foreign multinationals building a UAE bridgehead. Before committing to a regional HQ, multinationals often hire two to four UAE-based staff via EOR to validate the market. Once revenue and team size justify it, the entity follows.
Private equity portfolio companies expanding into the UAE. PE-backed firms entering the UAE want speed and clean commercial terms more than entity ownership. EOR is the standard playbook for portfolio expansion.
UAE entity setup in progress, but hire needed now. Even when you are setting up your own entity, EOR bridges the four to twelve-week gap so the first critical hire is not lost to a competitor. We migrate the employee to your entity when ready.
FAQ
UAE Employer of Record, common questions
An Employer of Record is a third-party company that becomes the legal employer of your hire under UAE law. The EOR holds the employment visa, signs the MoHRE contract, runs WPS payroll, and carries the employer compliance burden. The hire still works for you on a day-to-day basis. You direct the work, the EOR holds the paperwork.
In the UAE, the EOR is the registered employer on the visa and the contract. A PEO (Professional Employer Organisation) typically co-employs and is more common in jurisdictions where the legal model supports co-employment. The UAE Labour Law framework does not formally recognise co-employment, which makes EOR the working model here.
Two to four weeks from signed offer to first WPS payroll. The bottleneck is usually visa and medical processing, which we run in parallel with contract signing and Emirates ID issuance.
A typical UAE EOR engagement runs at a fixed monthly fee per employee on top of full burdened comp (salary, gratuity accrual, mandatory health insurance, and end-of-service). Confidential quote available based on role, salary band, and emirate of residence.
DIFC and ADGM operate under their own employment laws and licensing regimes, separate from the federal UAE Labour Law. EOR in DIFC and ADGM is possible but the structure differs. We advise on the right path during the initial scoping call.
EOR employees count under the EOR provider entity for Nafis purposes, not your own entity. If you are below the Nafis threshold, EOR keeps you below. If your strategy requires you to demonstrate Emiratisation in your own entity for procurement or licensing reasons, EOR may not be the right structure.
We handle the termination process under UAE Labour Law: notice, settlement of end-of-service gratuity from the trust, cancellation of the employment visa, and final WPS settlement. You decide commercially; we execute legally.
Call +968 9419 4167, email [email protected], or fill in the form at /contact. We schedule a 45-minute EOR scoping call to confirm fit, then send a fixed monthly quote within two business days.
We hire across the GCC
Pick a location to see how our team works there.
Ready to onboard in the UAE?
45-minute scoping call, fixed monthly quote in two business days.