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The operative law is Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2022 Concerning Domestic Workers, which took effect on 15 December 2022 and replaced the older Federal Law 10 of 2017. It was drafted to align with ILO Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers, and it was tightened further by Federal Decree-Law No. 21 of 2023, which entered into force on 1 January 2024.
Two more instruments matter for Golden Visa holders specifically. Cabinet Decision No. 65 of 2022 sets the Golden Visa regulations and is silent on any numerical cap for domestic-worker sponsorship — that silence is the legal basis for the “unlimited” reading. Ministerial Resolution No. 675 of 2022 defines which categories of domestic worker must be paid through the Wage Protection System (WPS) and which can be paid by other means.
If you want to handle this paperwork without errors that cost weeks at MOHRE counters, WhatsApp our typing centre on +971 50 639 5245 and we'll walk you through the documents you need before you even start.
The UAE recognises 19 official domestic-worker categories on u.ae: housemaid, sailor, guard, shepherd, jockey, tamer, falcon care-taker, worker, housekeeper, cook, nanny/babysitter, farm worker/grower, gardener, personal trainer, private tutor, home nurse, personal assistant, private agricultural engineer, and personal/family driver. If the role you want doesn't fit one of those 19, it isn't a domestic-worker sponsorship — it's a regular employment contract under a different MOHRE channel.
For most Golden Visa families, the realistic shortlist is housemaid, nanny/babysitter, cook, gardener, personal/family driver, housekeeper, and home nurse. A few clients ask us about hiring a “personal PRO” — there is no such category. The closest official match is personal assistant, which falls under the WPS-mandatory list (more on that below).
This is the section that confuses almost every new Golden Visa holder, so read it twice.
For standard residence-visa sponsors, you must show a minimum monthly income of AED 25,000 before MOHRE will let you sponsor a domestic worker. That number is confirmed in 2024–2025 reporting from Gulf News and ExpatWoman.
Golden Visa holders are exempt from the AED 25,000 threshold. Cabinet Decision 65/2022 assesses Golden Visa sponsors on overall financial solvency instead — bank balances, property holdings, business ownership, the same evidence package you used to get the Golden Visa in the first place. There is no statutory salary floor.
The second difference is volume. Standard sponsors are typically limited to one domestic worker without special permission. Golden Visa holders can sponsor an unlimited number of domestic workers under Cabinet Decision 65/2022, as confirmed in Khaleej Times legal Q&A coverage. In practice, MOHRE applies three soft caps: financial solvency (can you actually pay them), accommodation suitability (do you have the rooms), and document scrutiny. If you sponsor more than five domestic workers, expect MOHRE to request a written explanation. We cover the quota question in full — and resolve the “unlimited vs five” confusion — in our guide to how many domestic workers a Golden Visa holder can sponsor.
If you arrived at Golden Visa status through real estate, the rules around your own visa pathway are covered in our UAE real-estate Golden Visa guide for 2026. If you switched from an investor or employment visa, see our breakdown of readers who switched to the Golden Visa.
Two legal routes exist, and the right one depends on how many workers you're sponsoring and how much admin you want to absorb.
Tadbeer is the MOHRE-licensed network of agencies that handle recruitment, contract registration, medical fitness, Emirates ID, mandatory insurance, and lifecycle services like replacement and dispute resolution. Tadbeer Premium packages bundle everything; Basic packages cover only registration and leave you to coordinate the rest.
Direct hire from the source country is fully legal but conditional. You handle recruitment yourself, source-country attestation, embassy paperwork, medical, work permit, residence-visa stamping at GDRFA, and insurance — every component as a separate transaction. The cost is lower, but so is your error margin. A single document mistake at the embassy stage can delay arrival by six to eight weeks.
For first-time sponsors, Tadbeer's bundle is usually worth the premium because it absorbs rejection risk. For Golden Visa families sponsoring two, three, or more workers — where you'll repeat the same process several times — direct hire often wins on cost because the marginal effort drops with each subsequent worker. Many of our clients use a hybrid: Tadbeer for the first worker to learn the steps, direct hire for the rest.
This is the section most people land on when they search for "golden visa domestic helper cost," "golden visa maid visa," or "maid visa for golden visa holders" — so here are the numbers in the same words. Anyone who quotes you a single headline figure is hiding something; the real cost of a maid visa under a UAE Golden Visa is a stack of fixed and variable components. Here is the real component-by-component breakdown for first-year sponsorship in 2025–2026. For a deeper maid-specific calculator — a full Tadbeer-vs-direct-hire comparison and a worked first-year total — see our dedicated maid visa cost guide for Golden Visa holders.
| Cost component | Range (AED) |
|---|---|
| Tadbeer service / recruitment fee | 4,500 – 8,500 |
| MOHRE domestic-worker work permit | 500 – 700 |
| GDRFA/ICP entry permit + status change + visa stamping | 1,100 – 1,500 |
| Medical fitness test | 250 – 350 |
| Emirates ID (2-year card, incl. typing) | 270 – 310 |
| Mandatory health insurance (basic) | 320 – 1,800 / year |
| Worker-protection insurance (Taa-meen) | 60 / year |
| End-of-service gratuity provisioning | ~21 days' wage per year of service |
| Accommodation, food allowance | sponsor's responsibility |
The federal MOHRE Basic Health Insurance that launched on 1 January 2025 starts at AED 320 with up to AED 150,000 in cover; emirate-specific or upgraded private plans push that figure higher. The Taa-meen worker-protection insurance at AED 60/year replaced the older AED 3,000 cash deposit per worker on 15 October 2018 — a massive cashflow improvement that many older guides still get wrong.
Realistic all-in first-year totals:
End-of-service gratuity is governed by Article 22 of Federal Decree-Law 9/2022 and accrues at roughly 21 days' wage per year of service. Provision for it monthly — don't get caught short when a worker resigns after three years.
If you'd rather hand the file to a typing centre that handles 500+ visas a year, see our typing-centre Dubai FAQ for what we cover end-to-end.
Ready to sponsor your domestic worker? Sarmat handles the full sponsor file — Tadbeer/Tasheel contract, WPS, medical, and visa stamping — for Golden Visa holders across Dubai. Send us your situation and we’ll map the exact steps and cost.
This is where most online guides oversimplify. WPS is not blanket mandatory for all domestic workers.
Per Ministerial Resolution No. 675 of 2022, WPS registration is mandatory for 5 of the 19 categories:
For these five roles, salaries must flow through MOHRE-approved electronic channels. The mandatory phase began 1 April 2023 and was reinforced from 1 April 2025.
For the other 14 categories — housemaid, nanny, private/family driver, cook, gardener, home nurse, and most of the roles a typical Golden Visa family actually employs — WPS registration has been optional since 27 January 2022. We still recommend voluntary enrolment because it creates a verifiable wage paper-trail that protects you in any future labour dispute, but it is not a legal requirement.
For more detail on how WPS interacts with other visa categories, see our UAE visa types explained overview.
| Criterion | Golden Visa sponsor | Standard residence-visa sponsor |
|---|---|---|
| Salary / income threshold | Exempt — financial solvency standard | AED 25,000+ monthly income |
| Number of workers sponsorable | Unlimited (financial solvency + accommodation as practical caps) | Typically one without special permission; additional permits case-by-case |
| Visa duration for the worker | Typically issued in line with the full 2-year contract term in practice; the law is silent on exact residency-visa duration for Golden Visa-sponsored domestic workers (Khaleej Times legal Q&A) | Often 1 year, sometimes 2, at GDRFA/ICP discretion |
| Worker-protection insurance (Taa-meen) | Yes (since 15 October 2018) | Yes (since 15 October 2018) |
| WPS wage transfer | Mandatory for 5 specific categories (private agricultural engineer, personal assistant, housekeeper, private tutor, personal trainer); optional for the other 14 | Same — depends on the worker's category, not the sponsor's visa class |
| Mandatory health insurance | Yes — federal MOHRE Basic Health Insurance from 1 January 2025 (AED 320 base) + emirate rules | Yes — same federal + emirate rules |
| Accommodation rules | Suitable accommodation required under FDL 9/2022 | Same |
| Working hours / rest day | Max 12 hours/day; 1 paid rest day/week; 30 days paid annual leave after 1 year | Same |
Federal Decree-Law 9/2022 sets the floor and you cannot contract below it. Maximum 12 working hours per day, with 12 hours of minimum daily rest including 8 consecutive hours. One paid rest day per week. 30 days of paid annual leave after one year of service. End-of-service gratuity per Article 22.
Suitable accommodation, food, and medical care are the sponsor's responsibility. Passport retention is illegal — the worker keeps their own passport at all times. These provisions are enforced; complaints lodged through Tadbeer or the MOHRE call centre move quickly, and a sponsor on the wrong side of an investigation risks losing their domestic-worker quota across all current and future workers.
You can absolutely run all of this yourself. You can also drive yourself between MOHRE in Al Karama, Tadbeer in Al Quoz, GDRFA in Jafza, and ICP for Emirates ID across two weeks of forms — or you can hand the file to a typing centre that processes 500+ visas a year and finishes the same package in a fraction of the time.
Our typing centre in Deira has handled UAE government services for 12+ years and processed paperwork for 5,000+ clients. We work directly with Tadbeer agencies and handle direct-hire files end-to-end. See our typing-centre Dubai FAQ for what we cover, or message us on WhatsApp at +971 50 639 5245 to scope your specific case.
Some Golden Visa holders run family offices or HR functions where domestic-worker visas are one of many recurring tasks. If that's you, learning the process properly pays for itself within the first sponsorship.
Our Certified PRO Officer Program is a 3-day, KHDA-certified course covering 15+ hours of content plus 3 months of mentorship from a tutor with 8+ years of hands-on PRO experience and 100+ company setups under their belt. Many graduates run domestic-worker sponsorship for their own household plus their employer's executive families. You can also browse the broader Golden Visa overview for 2026 if you want to compare related visa pathways before deciding which course path fits you.
Yes. Cabinet Decision 65/2022 explicitly permits Golden Visa holders to sponsor domestic workers under the framework of Federal Decree-Law 9/2022 and Federal Decree-Law 21/2023. The sponsor must provide suitable accommodation, mandatory health insurance, and the Taa-meen worker-protection contribution.
Unlimited under Cabinet Decision 65/2022 — there is no numerical cap in the regulations. Practical limits come from financial solvency, accommodation suitability, and document scrutiny. MOHRE may ask for a written explanation if you sponsor more than five domestic workers.
Realistic first-year totals are AED 12,000–18,000 for direct hire and AED 14,000–22,000 for full Tadbeer. The component breakdown — work permit, GDRFA fees, medical, Emirates ID, health insurance, Taa-meen, and recruitment — is in the cost table above.
Both routes are legal. Tadbeer is the MOHRE-licensed bundled route, easier for first-time sponsors. Direct hire is permitted with conditions and usually wins on cost when you're sponsoring multiple workers or already familiar with the process.
Golden Visa holders are exempt from the AED 25,000 monthly income threshold that applies to standard residence-visa sponsors. They are assessed on overall financial solvency — the same evidence base used for the Golden Visa application itself.
In practice, the residence visa is typically issued in line with the full 2-year contract term. The law itself is silent on exact residency-visa duration for Golden Visa-sponsored domestic workers, per Khaleej Times legal Q&A coverage.
Mandatory for 5 of the 19 categories under Ministerial Resolution 675/2022 — private agricultural engineer, personal assistant, housekeeper, private tutor, and personal trainer. Optional for the other 14, including housemaid, nanny, and private driver. We recommend voluntary enrolment for the optional categories to create a clean wage paper-trail.
You owe end-of-service gratuity under Article 22 of Federal Decree-Law 9/2022 — roughly 21 days' wage per year of service. Tadbeer Premium packages typically include a “replacement guarantee” that covers a substitute worker within a defined window (commonly 3–6 months); direct-hire arrangements have no such guarantee, so you start the recruitment process from scratch.
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