UAE Work Visa: Firms Directed To Ensure Diverse Nationalities While Hiring

Amid claims that the UAE has temporarily stopped issuing visas to Indians and Pakistanis, a message from the authorities becomes a subject of discussion as it asked companies in the UAE to consider diverse nationalities when hiring. Some companies are not able to procure work visas for employees from certain South Asian nationalities, the Khaleej Times reported.

Companies that have a huge number of employees from a particular nationality and yet apply for new visas for the people of the same nation face the issues, the report said. However, the visa service centres and agents have dismissed the rumours and claims that the UAE halted issuing visas to people from countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

In response to a query from a business service in Dubai, The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) was quoted as saying that the establishments should diversify the hiring. “The first 20 percent of available quotas in the establishments are allocated to different nationalities. It is important to note that this procedure is linked to the demographic diversity of the establishments and is not associated with a specific nationality”.

Khaleej Times reported that when the newspaper contacted the ministry for a statement, a representative confirmed the news that the first 20 percent of a company’s workforce must be diversified. “For example, if a company applies for a visa for a particular person and it is rejected on the basis of diversification, then they must recruit someone of a different nationality for the same role to fulfil diversity requirements. It is not applicable to any particular nationality and is the same for everyone across the board.” Khaleej Times quoted the representative from MoHRE.

However, as per the report, the managing director of Dubai-based Profound Business Service Firosekhan dismissed the claims that the authorities stopped issuing visas to Indians. “I got a visa for an Indian applicant at a company that has a diverse workforce. However, when I tried to get one for an applicant at an establishment with an overwhelming majority of Indian employees, I got the ‘achieve diversity’ message.”

Abdul Gafoor, general manager of Al Mas Businessmen Service said that many companies in the UAE have more Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis as employees. So if a company already has a large number of employees from these three nationalities, they may face trouble with new visas for people from the same countries

MoHRe had in 2022 made a three-tier classification system and the companies which have achieved more diversity would get higher classification accordingly, which can make these companies eligible for incentives such as discounts on work permits

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