Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Working in Dubai

hi dxb soul,
my wife is coming on my sponsership. is it legal if she works under my sponsership? also i have dubai visa. can she work in sharjah?

if she can work, what wil happen to her job if i change job terminating the my previous employers work permit'residency visa?

Is it more advantageous for her to have a seperate residence(job) visa without my sponsership? do she need to exit the country for taking one?

Thanks

my wife is coming on my sponsership. is it legal if she works under my sponsership? also i have dubai visa. can she work in sharjah?

yes, she can remain under your residency sponsorship, but has to get labour sponsorship and a labour card from her employer.

most employers would prefer that she would move onto their residency sponsorship, as the annual renewal costs to the company are much higher if she stays under your residency.

if she can work, what wil happen to her job if i change job terminating the my previous employers work permit'residency visa?

before you can terminate your residency visa you have to cancel the sponsorship of any dependants that you may have under your sponsorship (wife, children, domestic servant etc.)

Is it more advantageous for her to have a seperate residence(job) visa without my sponsership? do she need to exit the country for taking one?

yes, personally i'd say so. it means if you loose your job and were forced to leave the country (until you were able to get another position), your wife would be able to stay on. she does not have to leave the country, there is a processing fee that her employer can pay to have the visa processed without leaving and re-entering the country

thanks dbxsoul, i wish i read this post weeks before.

Sir,
My friend resigned and cancelled his visa after 29 months of service from a Dubai based company as Engineer. He left the company in good terms. Now he is working with a company in Abu Dhabi on 6 months service visa which will be expiring on March 3,2008. Now kindly clarify the following
1. How long will it take for my new company to get an employment visa for him
2. Can they apply for the Employment visa during the Ban period.
3. He left UAE after canceling the previous visa on Aug 15,2007. ie his ban will be over by Feb 15,2008. Based on this will the new company can apply for the employment visa after this date.
4. For applying the employment visa did he has to go out of UAE or during the service visa period and after the expiry of ban, will the company can apply
5. And how long will it take to stamp the residence visa after entering UAE on Employment Visa

i'd like to ask if we can send resume's online even if we are not yet there?

is red ribbon really necessary? tnx...

hi there,
yes, send a cv/ resume through in the interm, you have nothing to loose by doing this and everything to gain.

red ribbon?

This is allot of useful information. I am thankful that you posted this information. I am a Private Investigation Agency (specializing in electronics) wanting to relocate my agency to Dubai, any suggestions..

Thanks very much, a great read and some really useful information.

Hi. Thanks, that was very informative and well set out.

I just wanted to ask a couple of question which are specific to my situation.

I have completed my final year of BA hons Marketing with Advertising degree from a London university. I have only my dissertation to submit in April and will then graduate with a 2.1 degree.

I am also self teaching myself Adobe CS3 softwares; Photoshop, Indesign, Flash, Dreamweaver and Illustrator.

I would like a role in marketing communications or advertising in either a strategic planning or creative capacity, ideally a bit of both, use research and statistics to plan communication campaugn and then create would be my ideal job.

What are my prospects in Dubai? I know salaries vary, but what is the minimum I should expect? Should I expect more or less than what I can get in London? Is 14-20,000dh per month plus 100,000 for housing allowance an unrealistic expectation?

Thanks in advance.

When were you planning on coming to Dubai?

As you are only graduating in April 2009 I assume that this is when you will be receiving your certificate soon after - as you will need the attested copy to be legally employed.

Technically you could be employed on your secondary school certificate (again I’m assuming that you were educated in the UK), the downside to this is that legally you could be employed as an office assistant at a media/ marketing company, however there are all kinds of complications that could make life miserable for you if the job didn’t work out – so I would advise against it. Rather be employed on your qualification with the correct job description and title.

What I would like to suggest is that you use the time between now and your graduation to get as much practical work experience under your belt; this means that you could have about 10 – 12 months worth of experience to add to you CV. Use the opportunity to work on as many and wide ranging campaigns as you can, even if you have to do this at a nominal salary.

Frankly speaking and without wanting to dampen your spirit, the salary (and perks) you are looking for would require at least 2 – 3 years experience on top of the qualification. Some employers even prefer to take staff with a lesser qualification, but more “real world” experience. With little or no experience the best you could expect to earn would be in the region of 7 – 14k per month and accommodation (if you are lucky of 60 – 80k), quiet rightly as you pointed out it would be determined by the employer and size of the company.

What I really want to convey is to get as much practical experience as possible, intellectual capital is invaluable and has no price!

dbxsoul wrote:When were you planning on coming to Dubai?

As you are only graduating in April 2009 I assume that this is when you will be receiving your certificate soon after - as you will need the attested copy to be legally employed.

Technically you could be employed on your secondary school certificate (again I’m assuming that you were educated in the UK), the downside to this is that legally you could be employed as an office assistant at a media/ marketing company, however there are all kinds of complications that could make life miserable for you if the job didn’t work out – so I would advise against it. Rather be employed on your qualification with the correct job description and title.

What I would like to suggest is that you use the time between now and your graduation to get as much practical work experience under your belt; this means that you could have about 10 – 12 months worth of experience to add to you CV. Use the opportunity to work on as many and wide ranging campaigns as you can, even if you have to do this at a nominal salary.

Frankly speaking and without wanting to dampen your spirit, the salary (and perks) you are looking for would require at least 2 – 3 years experience on top of the qualification. Some employers even prefer to take staff with a lesser qualification, but more “real world” experience. With little or no experience the best you could expect to earn would be in the region of 7 – 14k per month and accommodation (if you are lucky of 60 – 80k), quiet rightly as you pointed out it would be determined by the employer and size of the company.

What I really want to convey is to get as much practical experience as possible, intellectual capital is invaluable and has no price!

Thanks for the concise, to the point and honest feedback. I will now be looking for work experience opportunities until my graduation and would even consider working for free, if it adds invaluable experience to my Cv. Assuming that upon graduation I have several months experience, I think that 14k dh plus 60-80k dh would equate to around £30k in the UK, this would be a decent salary, even with the extortionate taxes and cost, and would allow to live well in the UK. What about in Dubai? Obviously not Ferrari money, but I would hope for a nice 1 bed apartment, and a decent car eg 1 Series or Gulf, not really into the flashy clubs and bars or the comfort shopping.

Hi dbxsoul

Thank you for all of your postings and helpful insight.

I am now a student in the US and will graduate with a BS in Business Management on December 19th. I am very interested in working in Dubai.
What do you recommend I do to find an entry-level position in Dubai. what are some recruitment firms for entry-level positions. I have some professional experience as a real estate agent for a year and i worked at a restaurant helping with management as a bartender for 2 years while earning my degree. I am 23 years old and I speak arabic and english very well.

could you please tell me when I should start looking for a job? and how much i should expect to get paid? what are my chances of finding a job?

your response is of great value to me as I am trying to take the first step in my professional career.



Thank you for your time

moejoe wrote: Obviously not Ferrari money, but I would hope for a nice 1 bed apartment, and a decent car eg 1 Series or Gulf, not really into the flashy clubs and bars or the comfort shopping.

Have a look at the posting below I did on the Cost of Living, there is a web link in the article to one of the local newspaper "classifieds" sections, here you'll be able to pull up some of the info you’re looking for regarding rental and vehicle prices. The shopping is something else; if you’re a gadget freak you’ll never save any money living in Dubai

Attalla wrote:Hi dbxsoul

Thank you for all of your postings and helpful insight.

I am now a student in the US and will graduate with a BS in Business Management on December 19th. I am very interested in working in Dubai.
What do you recommend I do to find an entry-level position in Dubai. what are some recruitment firms for entry-level positions. I have some professional experience as a real estate agent for a year and i worked at a restaurant helping with management as a bartender for 2 years while earning my degree. I am 23 years old and I speak arabic and english very well.

could you please tell me when I should start looking for a job? and how much i should expect to get paid? what are my chances of finding a job?

your response is of great value to me as I am trying to take the first step in my professional career.
Thank you for your time

Hi there,

First off I should make something quiet clear (and I say this with the best intentions), Dubai doesn’t market it’s self as a proving or training ground for fresh graduates; on the contrary, some of the regulations actually count against people looking for short-term employment (as well as vacation jobs).

Doing business in the Middle East is fairly demanding and cut-throat at times; in many instances companies cannot afford to put “green” staff on the firing line as it can cost them financially. New graduates are often naïve and too trusting and readily taken advantage of, heck even seasoned business people are often taken for a ride in Dubai!

Business in the UAE is extremely money focused and everything is focused on profit. In a modern “western” economy money is only one aspect of business, the long term training and investment in the well being of staff is also largely factored into the “over all business strategy”. In the UAE you are a contract worker, a number on the payroll and there is definitely no interest in developing your skills for when you leave the country (unless you are a UAE national). Most employers in the UAE are of the opinion that they are buying your skills, talent and intellectual property, they are paying you for the use of these things and that is as far as the contract extends.

Partly, for the reasons above there are no agencies specifically dealing with entrance positions, so your best option would be trying to get an agency that is more focused on business or managerial placements.

The practical experience you have definitely counts in your favour, any experience does; how you present it on your cv is the crucial issue. Your restaurant and bartending experience needs to be looked at, the core issues of the job extracted and highlighted: customer skills, working as part of a team, handling money, fiscal responsibility, service orientation etc. etc.
Salaries are normally related to qualification and experience; local employers prefer “local knowledge” and normally people with local knowledge are already employed by someone else.

A big plus in your favour is being conversant in Arabic.

Some regional business advice is: never let your guard down, never take your eye off the “ball”, always make sure you know where the money is coming from or going to irrespective of the client, always get a deposit, you will be able to count the number of people you can trust implicitly on one hand, never play your full hand – always keep something in reserve. Lastly, don’t be soft or you’ll get walked on.

Hi Soul,
My partner and I are looking to move over to Dubai ASAP, and the info you have posted is very helpful, thanks.

Hi there,

First off- excellent post, was extremely helpful

I will be completing my honours in Investment Banking on 15 Nov this year and I'm planning on going to Dubai in December.

I read some of the responses you gave the other graduates on this post where you state Dubai possibly isn't the easiest place to find a job for graduates... Does this just apply to Dubai or the entire UAE?

Thanks in advance

Hi everybody,

A great forum, useful information, I just wanna have your opinion about a job offer in Dubai.

The position is marketing project manager in charge of middle east and africa, They need someone with marketing and Information Technology background, with experience at least 2 years and fluency in French/Arabic/English.

I fulfill all there requirements, I have 2 bachelor degree ( Higher business studies and Information technology) and a master degree in information technology. I have almost 3 years experience.

What do you think will be the adequate salary, I wanna ask for a reasonable one, I'll be relocated to Dubai with my wife.

Thank you in advance.

i am a civil engineer from india . i have 1.5 years experience in multistoreyed construction . is there any opening for me in dubai.

hi All,
I am reading this forum from past few days. I am planning for my career advancement over there. Now i have very good knowledge about there. Thanks to forum and its members.
Atul

Great...!!!! This is a very valuable information for jobseekers.

Im a Software Test Engineer working currently in India ,and searching for Software Testing openings in Dubai .

Do you have any list of recruitment agencies that recruit software people from india ?
What will be the process ?

Hey all. Great info! It's really appreciated...

I did have a question about my situation that I did not see addressed in previous posts.

What is the best course of action for someone looking for a job in Dubai, but that is unable to move without an offer on the table?

My situation is a financial professional with 3 years experience and advanced degrees, born and raised in the USA. I've been over to visit and have no reservations about relocating long term / permanently. I require little to no relocation assistance, and plan on learning Arabic as soon as I have an offer to relocate.

However, I find myself in a paradox. To find work in Dubai, I need to move there, but to move there, I need money, but to get money, I need to find work in Dubai.

My current position is very demanding, and I am unable to take a 30 to 60 day vacation to find an opportunity locally.

I have been doing the internet and phone search to network as much as possible, but am having trouble getting beyond general inquiries to actual interviews. I am able to fly over at a moments notice for a face-to-face interview, but am unable to get that far.

How should I proceed? Is there a recruitment agency based here in the US that I could work with, so that the preliminary interview process goes smoother? Should I be targeting companies that have a presence both here and there, so that they may be more willing to interview me locally? Is there a website that caters specifically to people based outside of Dubai to help them market themselves to the correct opportunities?

Sorry about 1 question running into about 10, but I really appreciate all the help!

-Mike

Hey all. Great info! It's really appreciated...

I did have a question about my situation that I did not see addressed in previous posts.

What is the best course of action for someone looking for a job in Dubai, but that is unable to move without an offer on the table?

My situation is a financial professional with 3 years experience and advanced degrees, born and raised in the USA. I've been over to visit and have no reservations about relocating long term / permanently. I require little to no relocation assistance, and plan on learning Arabic as soon as I have an offer to relocate.

However, I find myself in a paradox. To find work in Dubai, I need to move there, but to move there, I need money, but to get money, I need to find work in Dubai.

Mmmmm. Interesting, but I don’t see why you would need money as a prerequisite to moving to Dubai?
Sure you may need a little to ship the odd item, but you can’t be contemplating packing up your entire house and shipping it over??? You may also need a little capital to keep you going while you looked for work, if you chose to come across on a visit visa and look for a position.

My current position is very demanding, and I am unable to take a 30 to 60 day vacation to find an opportunity locally.

Ha-ha, what you have here is a leap of faith. You either have to resign from your current job, make a clean break and move to Dubai in the hope of getting a job, or stay where you are and hope that you will get a firm offer prior to making the move.

I have been doing the internet and phone search to network as much as possible, but am having trouble getting beyond general inquiries to actual interviews. I am able to fly over at a moments notice for a face-to-face interview, but am unable to get that far.

Persistence. I’m afraid I can’t be more encouraging than that, you have to bear in mind that there are literally thousands of people at any one time trying to find work in Dubai (which is really no bigger than a small American city).

How should I proceed? Is there a recruitment agency based here in the US that I could work with, so that the preliminary interview process goes smoother? Should I be targeting companies that have a presence both here and there, so that they may be more willing to interview me locally? Is there a website that caters specifically to people based outside of Dubai to help them market themselves to the correct opportunities?

No idea about American companies, there are a few UK based companies that have regional offices in Dubai though.

Sorry about 1 question running into about 10, but I really appreciate all the help!

Another fair comment that I picked up on the forum in the last week was someone pointing out to someone (also looking for a vacancy in finance), that because of the recent upheavals there are now a lot of highly experienced and qualified financial people looking for work; a lot of them look at the middle east because of the excess of disposable capital – thereby putting pressure on the local job market by virtue of supply and demand.

Ok well I'll keep at it then. Thanks for all the info and I appreciate the help!

any body knows about almira group of companies.. is it fair .. or...

I would like to express my gratitude for such help. I have one question according to attested diploma in secton "" What doc-ts to bring" it means that my diploma should be attested in the Ministry of Education in my country, if so do you know how? I am planning to go to Dubai in two weeks and it will be very helpful to know.

Thank you in advance.

Ilya

Hi there Yes, contact the UAE consulate closest to you immediately, ask them for the Attestation process for you country as it varies from country to country.

Normally you will need to take it to your countries Department of Education as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs. The documents then have to go to the UAE consulate (if you do not have a UAE consulate in your country you can take it to a consulate of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well).

Do this immediately as the process can take some time. You need to attest your highest educational qualification or highest tertiary qualification. You cannot be employed in the UAE without attested documents!

stackbelsk wrote:I would like to express my gratitude for such help. I have one question according to attested diploma in secton "" What doc-ts to bring" it means that my diploma should be attested in the Ministry of Education in my country, if so do you know how? I am planning to go to Dubai in two weeks and it will be very helpful to know.
Thank you in advance.
Ilya

Have your Transcript of Records&Diploma attested in your country first,each country has different procedure in attesting their papers so you have to ask help from your countrymen.
note: Documents will be attested here again in UAE.

Perfect information...

Just one query, if my partner looks for work on a visit visa, and finds a uitable position (touch wood), would she be able to reside with me in my apartment, or under law is she required to have her own residence?

Info is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Johnlee

Hi there, depending on which side of the fence you stand it is either a black and white issue or a very grey issue.

The law of the land is clear, no "co-habitation" outside of marriage. This is strictly enforced among the local Muslim population; although the penalties are harsh for both Muslims and non-Muslims caught contravening the law in this regard.

The practicalities are... There are more expats than UAE nationals, while the law of the land applies to everyone living here; there is an unwritten aspect of "latitude" with regards to expats and certain of the laws.

There are literally tens of thousands of people doing exactly this. The police will only follow up if they receive a complaint in this regard, and then they have to do something and will and will normally pay you a visit.

The main thing is, if you are going to do it, then be prepared to accept the consequences; don’t draw attention to your self, your situation or embarrass your neighbours by you actions.

hi All
im in first year in business school and looking for an internship in dubai in marketing fields for 4 or 5 months starting im july 2009.
thanks.