Changing jobs in almost any other country is pretty much straight forward, you hunt around for something suitable behind your employer’s back, go for an interview, charm your way into the new position and then serve out your notice at your old job. Easy! And if you’re really lucky, you’re headhunted and don’t even have to look for a new position.
In Dubai things are done very differently however, and depending on who you are, where you work and how qualified you are, you may or may not be able to change jobs with or without an enforced ‘exile’ period of six months!
Because the rules have relatively recently changed with regard to swapping employers, we thought it was time to write a guide all about how to change jobs in Dubai so that if you’re moving to the emirate and are worried about being tied into a contract, you can find out what the reality of the situation really is.
In the past it was the case that because your visa was tied to your job and therefore your employer, if you sought to change employer you cancelled your visa, lost your sponsor and were therefore no longer eligible to remain living in Dubai. As a result, such individuals who were really keen to leave one job to take up another could face the real prospect of being exiled from Dubai for up to six months before being eligible to return and apply for a new position and new visa. These so called ‘banning rules’ have recently been eased a little to make life in Dubai a little more comfortable and fair – but before we continue, you do need to know that committing to live and work in the emirate is a serious undertaking because rules and laws often seem strange to us and yet are inflexible and enforced. So do look closely at the disadvantages of living in Dubai as well as the advantages before agreeing to move there!
So, now that the laws have been changed a little and changing jobs in Dubai is slightly easier, what do you need to know? Well, the bottom line is that you need to always, always, always keep in your employer’s good books because to change position if you are eligible to do so, you need your current employer to sign what’s called a NOC, or a ‘no objection certificate’ which releases you from your obligations to him.
In terms of your eligibility to change jobs once you have this NOC, it depends on the level to which you have been educated. If you’ve never been to college or university and therefore have no qualifying tertiary education you can only change jobs once. Those who have a graduate level degree can move only twice, and it is only those who have a masters or a PhD who can effectively change their job in Dubai as often as they like.
As your employer is your sponsor when you’re living and working in Dubai you have to go through the process of changing your sponsor with the Ministry of Labour before you can be allowed to change job. Sometimes your new employer will take care of all the paperwork and red tape involved, but sometimes you have to do it yourself. The first thing you need is the NOC, then you have to go to the Ministry of Labour and ask them for the correct forms for changing your sponsor. These should be supplied to you in Arabic and your old and new employers will have to sign then and stamp them. You then present the forms together with the trade licence and the establishment card from your new employer to the Ministry. Everything will be forwarded to the Department of Immigration for processing, and eventually your newly amended visa will be returned to you.
If you can get assistance with this from your new employer’s personnel department, so much the better, but in reality, whilst the process is a little lengthy and requires a certain amount of to-ing and fro-ing, it is quite easy.
As with any good rules there are of course a few exceptions. If your company goes out of business or your employer dies and you’re therefore left without a sponsor, you will find it easier to transfer sponsorship to a new company. Also, if you work in one of the Free Trade Zones your employer is that zone’s Authority rather than an individual company, this is good news for those changing jobs within the zone as it means they don’t need to apply for a new visa with a new sponsor. So as you can see, changing job in Dubai is possible, but it isn’t as straightforward as it is in other countries.