Can Friend or Relative Work for Company on Visit Visa? What Employment Law say?

A foreigner staying in the UAE on a visit visa raised the following question regarding employment. Can I manage my friend’s business while staying on a visit visa? Will I be charged any penalty? Is a work permit required to be employed by a friend’s company while on a visit visa? He asked his doubts.

What does the UAE Labor Employment Law say to your questions and doubts? So can I work with a friend’s company on a visit visa? Here you can see the answers in detail.

According to Section 6 (1) of the Labor Employment Law of the United Arab Emirates, no employee shall be employed or forced to work without obtaining a work permit from the Ministry of Labour.

Similarly, according to Section 60 (1) of the Employment Act, employing or harboring a person unrelated to the company without proper work permit will be fined 50,000 dirhams, and repeat offense will be punishable with imprisonment of 50,000 dirhams.

Whereas, according to Section 5 (4) of the Immigration Act, a foreigner must not engage in any work-related activity or full-time employment as permitted by applicable law while staying in the UAE as a visitor on a visit visa.

If anyone commits a violation without following the law, the UAE court will order the deportation of that foreigner. The court will also order the deportation of the foreigner who employed him or repeatedly harbored him.

However, a hiring employer and employee may mutually agree to obtain a work permit based on the various types of work permit prescribed by the Ministry of Human Resources and Immigration (MoHRE).

Part-time work permits, temporary work permits and freelance work permits are currently in place under the newly introduced revised labor law in the UAE. These are the Cabinet Resolution of 2022 no. 1 are mentioned in Section 6.
According to the above legal provisions, you cannot work in your friend’s business while you are on a visit visa. Instead, you can get a full-time work permit or any of the above work permits from your friend’s company and jointly manage the company’s operations based on mutual agreement.