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The reason every quote you have seen disagrees is that “cost” means two different things, and sales pages blur them on purpose.
This is the visa itself: the MOHRE work permit, the GDRFA/ICP entry permit and stamping, the medical fitness test, the Emirates ID, mandatory insurance, and either a Tadbeer package fee or your own direct-hire recruitment costs. Sarmat's estimate of 2026 setup totals (not an official price list; they are the sums of the rows in the table below): AED 6,120–10,860 by direct hire, before the two insurance policies you buy yourself, and AED 7,850–15,000 by full Tadbeer.
The monthly wage (AED 1,500–3,000 depending on nationality and experience), end-of-service gratuity accruing as you go, and the annual insurance renewals. The wage is by far the biggest number over time, and it is the one the “AED 7,850” headlines quietly leave out.
That advertised AED 7,850 is the bottom of the Tadbeer range in our table — and it is a setup figure only. It does not include an upgraded health plan if you take one, the ICP guarantee described below if it applies to your file, or a single dirham of salary. Count those as well and you have the honest maid visa cost for Golden Visa holders.
Two legal routes, two cost profiles. Tadbeer is the everyday name for the MOHRE-approved domestic workers services centres (the ministry publishes the list of them), which bundle the whole setup into one package. Direct hire (direct-from-source-country, DFSC) means you recruit the worker yourself and pay each government fee individually. Here is the same maid, priced both ways — typical 2026 ranges (Sarmat's estimates; MOHRE says its fees vary by emirate, so check every line against the receipt):
| Cost component | Direct hire (DFSC) | Full Tadbeer |
|---|---|---|
| Recruitment + flight + source-country attestation | AED 4,000 – 8,000 | included in package |
| Tadbeer all-inclusive package fee | — | AED 7,850 – 15,000 |
| MOHRE domestic-worker work permit | AED 500 – 700 | included |
| GDRFA/ICP entry permit + status change + stamping | AED 1,100 – 1,500 | included |
| Medical fitness test | AED 250 – 350 | included |
| Emirates ID (2-year card) | AED 270 – 310 | included |
| Health insurance (MOHRE basic package, northern emirates only: AED 320 / yr) | from AED 320 / yr; Dubai plans are priced by the insurer | basic tier usually included |
| Worker insurance policy (required by MOHRE) | priced by the insurer | included |
| Setup total (sum of the priced rows above) | AED 6,120 – 10,860 plus the two insurance policies | AED 7,850 – 15,000 |
One line most quotes leave out: ICP's own fee list for a domestic worker's residence permit shows a guarantee of AED 5,000 for each year of issuance when the sponsor is a foreign resident, on top of the AED 100-a-year permit fee. The page does not say whether Golden Visa holders are treated differently, so ask whether it applies to your file before you compare quotes. It is not included in either total above.
Direct hire wins on price because you cut out the agency margin — but you also absorb the admin and the rejection risk: one wrong attestation at the embassy stage can send the document back through the chain and stall the visa file. Tadbeer costs more because the package folds in mandatory worker orientation, lifecycle services, and the agency's legal duty to replace the worker or refund you if the placement fails (Article 5 of Federal Decree-Law 9 of 2022). There is no separate “training fee” line to budget for — that orientation is inside the package price, which is part of why Tadbeer sits above direct hire.
For a Golden Visa family sponsoring one maid, Tadbeer's bundle is usually worth the premium. If you are sponsoring two, three, or more household staff, direct hire's per-worker saving compounds fast — see our companion guide on how many domestic workers a Golden Visa holder can sponsor before you commit to a route.
Don’t want to figure this out alone? Sarmat is a KHDA-certified training provider and registered typing centre in Deira, Dubai. Message us on WhatsApp — we answer questions like this every day.
Setup is only half the bill. Here is the honest first-year cost of employing a maid, not just stamping her visa. Example: a Filipina housemaid, AED 2,500/month wage, hired via full Tadbeer.
The same maid by direct hire: setup ≈ AED 9,000 + AED 30,000 wage ≈ AED 39,000 — roughly AED 3,000 less in year one, and the gap widens with each additional worker. (Both setup figures in this example sit inside the ranges in the table above; the legal framework is in our pillar guide.)
On gratuity: Article 22 of Federal Decree-Law 9 of 2022 does not set a number of days. It says the Cabinet adopts the rules for calculating and paying a domestic worker's end-of-service gratuity, so confirm the amount with MOHRE before the contract ends rather than trusting a figure from a website. What the law does fix is 30 days of paid annual leave per year and the cost of a ticket home once every two years (Article 10) — budget for both.
Here is the one cost advantage that is genuinely yours as a Golden Visa holder. A standard expatriate sponsor typically renews a domestic worker's visa every year. A Golden Visa holder can sponsor a maid on a 2-year residence visa — the same two-year cycle granted to Emiratis and GCC nationals. That means you run the medical, the Emirates ID renewal, and the stamping fees half as often. Over a maid's multi-year tenure, halving the renewal frequency quietly saves several thousand dirhams that no Tadbeer sales page builds into its comparison. One exception: if the ICP guarantee described below applies to your file, ICP lists it per year of issuance, so a two-year visa does not halve that line.
Short answer for a housemaid: no — it is optional. This trips up a lot of guides that flatly state “cash not accepted.”
Under Ministerial Resolution No. 675 of 2022, salary-through-WPS is mandatory for only 5 of the 19 domestic-worker categories (private agricultural engineer, personal public relations officer (PRO), home care provider, private tutor, and private trainer), from 1 April 2023. A housemaid, nanny, cook, gardener, or family driver sits in the other 14 categories, where registration is voluntary (open since 1 January 2023). You can pay a housemaid outside WPS, but the law still requires the wage within 10 days of its due date and a written receipt (Article 15 of Federal Decree-Law 9 of 2022). We still recommend enrolling voluntarily — a verifiable wage paper-trail protects you in any future labour dispute — but it is your choice, not a legal trap.
Two official pages decide this line, and they are worth reading before you argue with a quote. MOHRE's service for a new domestic-worker work permit requires that the worker be covered by an adequate insurance policy. ICP's fee list for the worker's residence permit shows a guarantee of AED 5,000 per year of issuance when the sponsor is a foreign resident. Neither page says whether Golden Visa holders are treated differently. So ask any centre to show the guarantee and the insurance as separate lines, and which authority each one goes to.
You can run all of this yourself across MOHRE, Tadbeer, GDRFA, and ICP counters — or hand the file to a typing centre that processes 500+ visas a year and closes the same package in a fraction of the time. Our Deira typing centre has handled UAE government services for 12+ years for 5,000+ clients, works directly with Tadbeer agencies, and runs direct-hire files end-to-end. Message us on WhatsApp at +971 50 639 5245 to price your specific case, or see our typing-centre Dubai FAQ.
If domestic-worker visas are a recurring task for you — a family office, an HR role, an executive household — the Certified PRO Officer Program is a 3-day KHDA-certified course that teaches the whole workflow, with 3 months of mentorship. You can also browse the UAE Golden Visa 2026 overview for related pathways.
By Sarmat's estimate (not an official price list), the visa setup runs about AED 6,120–10,860 by direct hire (before the two insurance policies you buy yourself) and AED 7,850–15,000 by full Tadbeer, per 2-year cycle. On top of that you budget the monthly wage (AED 1,500–3,000) and end-of-service gratuity. An advertised “from AED 7,850” package is the bottom of that range and covers setup only — not salary, an upgraded health plan, or the ICP guarantee if it applies to you.
On the rows in our table, direct hire (DFSC) comes out roughly AED 1,700–4,100 cheaper per worker before you add the two insurance policies, because you cut the agency margin, but you absorb the admin and the embassy-attestation risk. Tadbeer costs more and is the safer choice for a first-time sponsor; direct hire's saving compounds when you sponsor several workers.
Golden Visa holders can sponsor a domestic worker on a 2-year residence visa — the same cycle as Emiratis and GCC nationals — versus the 1-year cycle a standard expatriate sponsor typically gets. Fewer renewals means lower lifetime cost.
No. A housemaid is one of the 14 WPS-optional categories under Ministerial Resolution 675/2022 (WPS is mandatory only for 5 categories). Voluntary enrolment is recommended for a clean wage record, but it is not required.
The law does not give a per-year figure. Article 22 of Federal Decree-Law 9 of 2022 says only that the Cabinet adopts the rules for calculating and paying domestic workers' end-of-service gratuity, so confirm the amount with MOHRE before the contract ends. What the law does fix: 30 days of paid annual leave per year and the cost of a ticket home once every two years (Article 10).
Check the official fee lists rather than a rule of thumb. ICP's fee list for a domestic worker's residence permit shows a guarantee of AED 5,000 per year of issuance when the sponsor is a foreign resident, and MOHRE's work-permit service requires the worker to be covered by an adequate insurance policy. Neither page says whether Golden Visa holders are treated differently, so ask for the guarantee and the insurance as separate lines in any quote.
The sponsor pays: Article 11 of Federal Decree-Law 9 of 2022 makes the employer cover the worker's medical care or provide health insurance. MOHRE's Basic Health Insurance package (AED 320 a year, from 1 January 2025) is listed for Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah only. In Dubai or Abu Dhabi, ask your insurer or service centre which plan the residence permit needs.
In our worked example (Sarmat's estimates) for a Filipina housemaid on AED 2,500/month via Tadbeer: roughly AED 12,000 setup + AED 30,000 wage ≈ AED 42,000 in year one, before end-of-service gratuity, leave pay and the ticket home. Direct hire trims that by about AED 3,000.
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