Most pages answer only the first layer, and several answer it wrongly. The licence decides whether you may hire at all. An establishment card, which MOHRE, ICP and GDRFA each describe in their own terms without any page saying whether they mean one document or three, is the registration that makes hiring administratively possible. A work permit from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, inside a quota the ministry sets, is what lets a named person work for you, and a residence visa is a fourth step from a different authority again.
Under Article 6 of Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021, the UAE Labour Law, it is illegal for a person to work in the UAE without a valid MOHRE work permit, and employers "may not recruit or employ any worker unless a work permit is issued in accordance with MoHRE procedures" (u.ae). Permits go only to establishments registered with the ministry. So a friend helping out for cash is not a grey area, whatever your licence says.
Which emirates let you hire on a home business licence?
One licence does, and only for UAE and GCC nationals resident in Dubai. Here is what each authority publishes, in its own words. Where a portal is now offline, the archive capture date is given.
| Emirate and licence | What the authority publishes about staff | Source, and its date |
|---|---|---|
| Dubai, Intelaq (UAE and GCC nationals resident in Dubai only) | "3 employees and according to the approval of the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization" | Dubai SME service page, Wayback capture of 22 February 2024 |
| Dubai, eTrader (UAE and GCC nationals resident in Dubai) | Asked whether the holder may request workers on the trade licence, the answer is one word: "لا", no | DED Trader FAQ in Arabic, Wayback capture of 8 December 2022, our translation |
| Abu Dhabi, Mobdea | "No Employees Allowed. You are not permitted to hire employees." | ADRA, live page, early October 2026 |
| Abu Dhabi, Tajer | Nothing. Neither permitted nor banned, in either source | ADRA's Tajer page, live, early October 2026; the federal portal's Tajer section, Wayback capture of 20 April 2026, the live page now 404 |
| Sharjah, Eitimad (UAE nationals resident in Sharjah, 18 and above) | "The licence does not allow recruitment of staff on the company." | u.ae, still carrying this wording in the Wayback capture of 20 April 2026; live page since removed |
| Sharjah, e-commerce licence | Nothing either way, although residents may hold it | SEDD FAQ, live page, early October 2026 |
| Ajman, Reyada | "It is not allowed to recruit labor on the license" | Ajman DED, live page, early October 2026 |
| Ras Al Khaimah, Al Ghad | "no employment permits are allowed under the license" | RAK Government portal news release of 20 June 2018, still live early October 2026 |
| Ras Al Khaimah, Forsa (residents on a family visa or with a sponsor's no-objection letter) | A WAM report carried by Al Bayan listed, among RAK DED's conditions, that work permits cannot be issued under the licence | WAM via Al Bayan, 23 November 2022, our translation |
| Fujairah, Mashroui | Nothing, in either the Arabic or the English service card | Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality, live cards, early October 2026 |
| Umm Al Quwain | No home business licence published, so the question does not arise | Established in our own research, 3 October 2026 |
RAK DED's own Arabic conditions agree with the government portal, stating that bringing in labour on an Al Ghad licence is not permitted (capture of 8 February 2023, our translation). Forsa is weaker: every statement about it, the table row included, comes from a state news agency report carried by a newspaper rather than from a RAK page, and ded.rak.ae now serves no readable text at any URL we tried. Ask RAK DED on 072044444 for its actual conditions.
Abu Dhabi's silence on Tajer is the most consequential blank above. ADRA bans employees on Mobdea in two flat sentences and says nothing whatsoever about employees, staff, sponsorship or visas on Tajer; we read the full page, and the federal portal's Tajer section, readable now only in the capture of 20 April 2026, is equally quiet. If you have read our guide to the Tajer Abu Dhabi licence, treat its line about employing staff as an inference drawn from a fee, not a published rule, and read the contradiction below first.
What is an establishment card, and how many are there?
Almost every page on this subject writes as though there were one. Three authorities each describe a registration of their own, in their own words, and none of them says whether they all mean the same document. MOHRE's comes first: the employer registers the establishment "by opening a file and obtaining an establishment card and number linked to the business licence, enabling the company to operate and recruit employees" (u.ae, sourced to MOHRE). ICP issues a separate electronic card holding "the registered establishment data such as trade name, license number, partners, and type of activity", requires a valid commercial licence, charges AED 100 to apply, AED 100 per year, AED 100 for smart services and an AED 2,000 system subscription, and completes in 2 days through authorised service providers only. GDRFA then opens a company file, which is what eventually produces entry permits and visas; u.ae says an establishment card is issued at that stage too, without saying whose. SEDD, asked on its live FAQ how to obtain an establishment card, answers only "From Ministry of Human Resources & Emiratisations". Whether that is one card counted three times or three separate registrations is itself unpublished.
The clearest official sentence anyone has written on the mechanism is Dubai Media Office's, announcing the 2020 Intelaq change: "Intelaq licence holders can also get Establishment Cards, which provides varied facilities including work visas for up to three employees." The card brings the facility. It is not the permission, and it is not the visa.
Do not treat it as a shortcut to a visa for someone who will not really work. ICP applies a fine of AED 20,000 where entry permits are issued for an establishment not conducting any business activity, and MOHRE may refuse, decline to renew or cancel permits where an establishment "is fictitious or does not exercise its registered activity".
What does MOHRE actually control?
The quota, the permit and an inspection. Cabinet Resolution No. 203 of 2022, published as a PDF on u.ae, is the most useful document here and almost nobody cites it. Article 3 sets the opening allocation: 20 electronic work permits for new establishments in high-priority sectors, 6 for those on the Annexure 2 list, and "New establishments are granted quota of an electronic work permit for 3 employees." Article 1 defines a new establishment as one registering for the first time "by applying for an establishment card", which is exactly why the card is a gateway rather than a permission. Article 6(b) has the ministry reviewing quotas "every 3 months at the farthest", so a quota is an allocation under review.
Before any permit, MOHRE inspects. The ministry "schedules a visit to inspect the establishment's facilities" and then issues the electronic signature card, which "is a prerequisite for the employer to apply for work permits for employees". No authority we could read says what happens when the facility is a house. That is the single most important unanswered question on this page, and anyone who tells you the answer is guessing. Ask MOHRE on 600 590000, which the ministry publishes on its own contact page and which our guide to a freelance permit against a home business licence also uses.
Three further things to budget for. A refundable bank guarantee of AED 3,000 is required for each registered employee and borne by the employer. The worker's occupation must align with the licensed activity, and the trade licence must be valid and free of violations. And the permit is not the visa: after initial approval you open that separate GDRFA file, obtain a work entry permit valid for two months, and only then is the employee "granted a residence visa based on the work permit".
Two gaps sit inside the machinery. None of the 13 permit types is written for a licence with no premises, since they are organised by recruitment route: from outside the country, by transfer, for a resident already here on a family sponsorship, temporary, mission, part-time, juvenile, student training, UAE or GCC national, golden visa holder, national trainee, freelance and private teacher. The family-sponsorship type is the one worth asking MOHRE about, because it hires someone already resident rather than importing anyone. And Annexure 2's list of activities worth 6 permits runs to 35 entries, mostly construction and cleaning trades; the nearest things to a home business on it are Restaurant, Delivery Services, Goods Packing Services, Fresh Food Trade (wholesale), Department Store and Management Office, with no sweets, bakery, cosmetics, tailoring or handicraft entry at all; whether a home licence's activity code maps onto any of them is unpublished. Both questions go to MOHRE.
Of the types that do exist, two others suit a seller who may hire. A part-time permit covers someone working fewer hours or days than a full-time employee, who may hold more than one employer with ministry approval. A temporary permit lets you borrow a worker already employed elsewhere for a limited task. The freelance permit is neither: it is issued to an individual for their own labour and is not a way to hire anybody.
Where do the authorities contradict each other?
Seven live conflicts, none of which we will resolve for you quietly.
What sets the quota is the biggest. The Cabinet Resolution gives a flat number and never mentions premises. u.ae's recruiting page, sourced to MOHRE, says the ministry decides "according to the company's legal status, the size of the work facilities, the projects undertaken by the establishment, and business requirements", and SEDD's live FAQ sides with u.ae: "The number of visas depends on the activity and site size." A flat quota means a residential address is no obstacle on paper. A quota that turns on site size means a villa may score nothing. Only MOHRE on 600 590000 can say which governs.
Whether Intelaq's three is a Dubai allowance or the federal default showing through has never been written down anywhere. If it is the default, three is not an Intelaq benefit and other licences might reach it; if it is a Dubai cap, ministry approval could still cut it. Ask Dubai SME on info@sme.ae and Dubai Economy and Tourism on +971 600 55 55 59, with the quota half going to MOHRE. We also could not confirm the allowance still stands in 2026, because sme.ae returns 403 to automated requests. The page was captured again on 19 July 2024, 4 October 2024 and 19 April 2025, but the April 2025 capture is an empty shell, so the capture of 22 February 2024 remains the last readable copy of the employee line. Our guide to the Intelaq licence in Dubai works from the same Dubai SME text.
Dubai's eTrader has three answers from three Dubai sources. The official FAQ says no workers, and u.ae, on a page whose own update line read 20 April 2026, says the holder "cannot open a shop or issue visas". Against that, the DED Trader brochure captured 24 January 2023 lists "issuance of Establishment Card and employment of three employees" as a benefit, and Invest in Dubai said in a capture of 16 February 2021 that the licensee "can avail of three visas if the ownership is 100 % Emirati". The portal no longer resolves in DNS, so only DET can say what the licence is today.
Tajer is a conflict between a silence and a fee. TAMM charges AED 315 on Tajer for a "Request for Establishment Card from the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship" and charges no equivalent on Mubdiah, where it states a worker sponsorship ban outright. The card is the registration an employer needs, which implies hiring is contemplated, but no Abu Dhabi page says so. We verified those fee lines in a browser on 3 October 2026 and could not re-read them since, as tamm.abudhabi serves an empty shell to anything automated. Ask TAMM or ADDED on 800 555, in writing.
Whether a business must have premises at all is the structural reason this subject is a mess. u.ae states without qualification that "All businesses in the UAE must have a physical address to operate" and that a rental agreement must be provided, registered with Ejari in Dubai. Every home licence in the country is an exception no federal page acknowledges: u.ae exempts Tajer activities from any physical presence, SEDD describes Eitimad as needing no store location, and the DED Trader FAQ asked only for an address with a Makani number kept confidential in the department's database. SEDD, for its part, says plainly that a standard licence cannot be run from a home, which is why these special licences exist at all. The hiring machinery assumes a workplace to inspect, and that is why the inspection question has no answer. Ask whoever issues your licence: DET on +971 600 55 55 59, TAMM on 800 555, SEDD on 80080000, Ajman DED, RAK DED on 072044444, or Fujairah Municipality on 80036.
Sharjah's own ban now exists only in material that is not live, although it is more recent material than it looks. Eitimad's legal conditions, captured 26 October 2020, barred work permits and imported labour outright. The federal wording in the table appears on u.ae's dedicated Eitimad page in a capture of 30 May 2025, whose own footer reads 10 July 2024, and the identical sentence is still there in the capture of 20 April 2026 of the parent eCommerce page, whose footer reads 20 April 2026, before both pages were removed. SEDD's live 2026 FAQ still lists Eitimad among five licence types and describes it in full, with no mention of staff, while eitimad.sedd.gov.ae still resolves in DNS but no longer answers. Whether the ban still stands, and whether the e-commerce licence open to residents carries one, both go to SEDD on 80080000 or +971 9 208 3333.
Fujairah's Mashroui contradicts itself inside one document. Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality's Arabic card restricts the licence to citizens resident in the emirate; the English version of the same card, same procedure number, sets no nationality condition. Both are live and both are silent on employees, and the only statement ever made about expatriate help came from a newspaper report of 9 October 2016, which framed household workers as an exception to a ban on expatriates using the licence rather than as permission to employ anyone. Ask Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality, or Fujairah Municipality on 80036.
Can your housemaid help with the business?
Abu Dhabi and Sharjah both publish a carve-out, their wording close enough to suggest a shared template, and it is routinely reported as more generous than it is.
The Abu Dhabi Businesswomen Council's conditions for Mubdiah state that "No work (labour hiring / outsourcing) permits shall be issued" and that it is prohibited "for any other non-women-nationals parties to assume a direct role in the activities related to the licence", a class that takes in Emirati men as well as expatriates, "with the exception of those mainly employed at home whose role must be of a temporary nature and in an intermittent manner". Then comes the sentence everyone drops: "Such parties should not have any relationship whatsoever to the licensed activity and women licensees shall be held administratively and legally responsible for ensuring the same." That is not permission for a domestic worker to help with the business. It is permission for her to go on doing her existing job while a business happens in the same building. Sharjah's archived Eitimad conditions say the same in Arabic, down to the no-connection requirement and the licence holder's legal responsibility for it (capture of 26 October 2020, our translation).
Neither text defines what counts as a relationship to the activity, and neither says who pays if an inspector reads it differently than you do. Get that in writing from ADDED on 800 555 or SEDD on 80080000 before anyone helps with a single order. Abu Dhabi's text is the only one that names the alternative to employment: its ban covers "work (labour hiring / outsourcing) permits", though it never defines outsourcing. Its prohibited class also reaches further than Sharjah's, barring any party who is not a woman national from a direct role where Sharjah bars any party who is not a citizen. Neither says whether paying an agency for a day's help counts. One more note on provenance: a second numbered list on the same page, setting out what applicants must satisfy, requires "Approval by husbands or guardians" and a minimum age of 21, neither of which TAMM or ADRA mentions, on a page whose copyright line reads 2017.
Frequently asked questions
If my licence bans staff, what can I do about more orders than I can handle?
Nothing involving another person working on the licensed activity, as the texts stand. What the rules do not touch is how you sell: a storefront link, orders on iOS, Android or the web, pickup or delivery with the buyer paying the delivery fee, and weekly payouts to your own bank account all work without a second pair of hands on the licence.
What does one employee cost before salary?
More than the permit. MOHRE requires a refundable bank guarantee of AED 3,000 per registered employee. ICP's own card fees are AED 100 to apply, AED 100 per year, AED 100 for smart services and an AED 2,000 subscription, which do not sum to the AED 315 TAMM charges on Tajer for the same card. No page explains the gap, we have seen no published total for a home licence hire, and we are not going to estimate one. u.ae puts the permit itself at "AED 250 to AED 3,450", depending on the company's A, B or C classification, which no page ties to a home licence. The ministry publishes no freelance permit fee we could find; ask it on 600 590000.
Is a work permit the same as a residence visa?
No, and the order matters. MOHRE registers the establishment, inspects it, issues the e-signature card, approves a quota and issues the permit. GDRFA then opens a separate company file, producing a work entry permit valid for two months, and the residence visa follows from that. Two authorities, two files, two timelines.
Does Umm Al Quwain allow a home business to hire?
Umm Al Quwain publishes no home business licence at all, so there is no rule to read. Ignore any page naming one, including anything calling it Ibda; we have found no official source for such a licence.
I never had an establishment card. Does closing the licence still need a MOHRE letter?
Unclear, and it is the mirror image of this whole question. Dubai and Sharjah both list a MOHRE cancellation letter among the documents required to close a licence, and SEDD's FAQ answer about hiring has that cancellation sentence pasted into it. If the ministry never held a file for you there is nothing to cancel, but nobody says so in writing. Ask the department that issued the licence, and see closing a home business licence for the rest.
Sources
What we could not read matters as much as what we could. sme.ae returns 403 to automated requests. tamm.abudhabi, ded.rak.ae and investindubai.gov.ae render client-side or block automated requests and served no extractable text. mohre.gov.ae reads normally and publishes its call centre as 600 590000, but we found no ministry page setting out work permit quotas or fees for a licence with no premises, so the MOHRE material here comes from u.ae, which attributes it to the ministry, and from the Cabinet Resolution PDF u.ae hosts. dedtrader.ae no longer resolves in DNS, eitimad.sedd.gov.ae resolves but no longer answers, and the u.ae eCommerce page returned 404 the day we checked, though its own update line read 20 April 2026. Those are blocks and removals, not evidence that nothing was published.
- u.ae: Work permits
- u.ae: Recruiting on the mainland, sourced to MOHRE
- u.ae: Steps to start a business on the mainland
- Cabinet Resolution No. 203 of 2022 on e-quotas of work permits, PDF published by u.ae
- MOHRE: Contact us, which publishes the call centre as 600 590000
- ICP: Issuing an Establishment Card
- ADRA: Mobdea Licence
- ADRA: Tajer Abu Dhabi Licence
- TAMM: Issue Economic Licence, Tajer Abu Dhabi and Issue Economic Licence, Mobdea. The AED 315 establishment card line and the Mubdiah sponsorship ban were read in a browser on 3 October 2026; the site serves an empty shell to automated requests and we could not re-read them.
- Abu Dhabi Businesswomen Council: Issuing Mubdiah Licence, legal terms and conditions
- Dubai SME: Request for Intelaq Licence, Wayback capture of 22 February 2024
- Dubai Media Office: Dubai SME adds foodstuff to Intelaq licence and allows issuance of Establishment Cards, 17 August 2020
- DED Trader FAQ in Arabic, Wayback capture of 8 December 2022
- DED Trader brochure PDF, official and bilingual, Wayback capture of 24 January 2023
- Invest in Dubai: DED Trader licences issued in 2020, Wayback capture of 16 February 2021; the live page is now 404
- u.ae: eCommerce, Wayback capture of 20 April 2026, which still carries both the Tajer section and the Eitimad staff sentence
- SEDD: FAQ
- u.ae: Eitimad domestic licence from Sharjah, Wayback capture of 30 May 2025, footer dated 10 July 2024
- Eitimad legal conditions, Wayback capture of 26 October 2020
- Ajman DED: Reyada Program
- RAK Government portal media centre: 242 active Al Ghad licences in RAK DED, a news release dated 20 June 2018 in its own body
- RAK DED: Al Ghad licence conditions, Wayback capture of 8 February 2023
- WAM report carried by Al Bayan, 23 November 2022, on RAK DED's Forsa licence conditions
- Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality: Issue Mashroi Licence, English card
- Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality: the same card in Arabic, which restricts the licence to citizens resident in Fujairah
- The National, 9 October 2016, on the launch of the Fujairah trade licence project
- KLU: fees, payouts and delivery (FAQ)
Last verified: 3 October 2026.
