UAE Lifts Employment Ban on Expatriates

August 23, 2005
Sify

DUBAI — In a landmark decision, the United Arab Emirates has lifted the automatic six-month employment ban on expatriates with immediate effect, according to official sources.

The expatriates can now switch jobs within the country and local companies can recruit from the expatriate community.

Those who are banned by the Labour Ministry cannot work during the ban period but can enter the country as a tourist, the sources added.

Following lifting of the ban, except on maids, the immigration department has done away with biometric scan such as iris print, a measure to detect banned expatriates from returning.

The government has also outsourced the verification of academic qualifications of job seekers, who are required to produce degree certificates for processing their residence visas.

Till recently, the attestation process was run by private operators and involved execution of several procedures at the applicant's country of origin.

IntegraScreen, the company authorised to do the attestation at 500 Dirham, said through its three offices in India it has the infrastructure to carry out the verification of Indian job seekers.

"We conduct 50,000 checks per month at a global level and we have links with just about every university in India," a company spokesman said.

He said the certificates would not have any seals unlike in the past as the authenticity details would be relayed directly to the Labour Ministry computer system.

*Reproduced with permission from Sify.com