Checking a job offer from abroad

How do you check that the brokerage exists and is licensed?

Start with the firm, because everything else hangs off it. A Dubai brokerage holds an Office Registration Number, its ORN, and the Dubai Land Department publishes the register to check it against. Ask for the ORN in writing, then look it up yourself rather than trusting a number printed in an email or a social media profile.

Then check the business licence as well as the property registration. The UAE government portal points to the Department of Economy and Tourism's licence search for Dubai businesses, and to the National Economic Register, where a company can be searched by its English and Arabic names. The name on the trade licence, the name on the DLD record and the name on your offer should be the same company.

A mismatch is not always fraud: a brand can trade under a name that differs from its legal entity. It is still a question to have answered in writing before anything else happens. The difference between a firm's ORN and an individual's BRN has its own piece in this guide.

How do you check the person who contacted you?

A real firm can still be impersonated. The name, logo and listings of a licensed brokerage are public, and nothing stops someone borrowing them for a message. Verify the person separately from the firm.

Find the firm's contact details yourself, from the DLD record or from its own website reached by search rather than by a link you were sent, and ask the office whether the person works there and whether the role exists. If the person says they are a broker, the DLD's search takes mobile numbers as well as broker and office names, so the number that messaged you can be checked against the register.

Third party recruiters are a separate case. Article 6(3) of the UAE labour law states that recruiting or mediating employment is not permitted without a licence from MOHRE, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation. Ask a UAE recruiter for that licence and confirm it with the ministry's call centre, on 600590000 from inside the UAE or on its international line, 00971-68034000, from abroad. An agency in your own country answers to your own government, so ask which authority licenses it and check with that authority.

1. 01

   A personal email address

   Emails that do not come from the company's official domain are among the warning signs MOHRE has listed. An offer sent from a free webmail account is a reason to call the office before replying.

2. 02

   Interviews only by text

   A firm hiring someone to talk to clients will want to hear them talk. An offer made without a call or video interview has skipped the part that matters to an employer.

3. 03

   Urgency attached to a payment

   Pay today to hold the place, the visa window closes on Friday. Real processes have dates. They do not have countdowns tied to a transfer.

4. 04

   Reluctance to be checked

   Any hesitation over giving an ORN, a trade licence number or an office line you can ring yourself is the answer to the check.

Can a brokerage or recruiter charge you to get the job?

Here is what the law and the ministry publish, quoted rather than interpreted. Article 6(4) of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, the UAE labour law, states: "The employer is prohibited from charging the worker for the fees and costs of recruitment and employment or collecting them from him, whether directly or indirectly."

MOHRE's Know Your Rights guide for workers, issued in the first quarter of 2024, says the law binds the employer to settle the costs of recruitment and hiring, and lists them: fees paid to a private recruitment agency accredited by the worker's own government, the cost of the entry visa and travel to the UAE, and post-arrival procedures such as medical tests and the residency permit. The UAE government portal puts it in one line: the employer is responsible for recruitment expenses under the labour law.

Two things those sources do not settle. Both are written about employment, and not every arrangement offered to agents in Dubai is one; whether yours is, and so whether they apply to you, is a question for MOHRE rather than for us. And the published guidance does not say whether the licensing fees for a broker card count as recruitment costs. The Dubai Land Department publishes those fees itself, AED 500 for the broker card and AED 700 for the exam, with AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation fees and an AED 50 ERES fee plus VAT, so any figure you are quoted for them can be checked against its page.

The requests to slow down for are payments to the firm, a recruiter or an individual for the job itself: a fee to secure the role, to hold a seat on the team, for a starter pack, or for training run by the firm rather than the certified course. Before paying anything, ask in writing who receives the money, what it is for, and which law or fee schedule it comes from. Then put the answer to MOHRE.

What should a genuine offer and contract look like?

The UAE government portal states that a job offer comes as an offer letter issued by MOHRE and signed by the employer's authorised manager, and that you can verify it by its reference number through the enquiry service on MOHRE's website. MOHRE's Employment Offers and Contracts service also allows you to view an offer or contract by its transaction number, with your passport number, nationality and date of birth. If the ministry's system cannot find your offer, ask the firm why before doing anything else.

Read the offer as closely as you would read the contract. MOHRE's guide for workers says the employment contract signed after arrival should be consistent with the job offer signed in your own country, tells workers to keep a copy of the signed offer, and says a worker asked to sign a contract with different terms should refuse and notify the ministry. MOHRE's guide for labour inspectors adds that the offer is to be sent to the worker in Arabic and in another language the worker understands.

How a signed offer becomes a work permit and an entry permit, and why an offer that asks you to start on a visit visa is a warning in itself, are set out in the piece on the order of steps from abroad. One check belongs here: the government portal notes that an entry permit issued in Dubai can be verified on the GDRFA website, so a permit you are sent can be checked as well as the offer behind it.

1. 01

   It exists in MOHRE's system

   Found by its transaction number on the ministry's Employment Offers and Contracts enquiry, not only received as an attachment.

2. 02

   It names the company you checked

   The employer on the offer matches the trade licence and the DLD record from the first check.

3. 03

   The pay is written down

   Salary, commission or both, in writing. The terms that decide what a commission arrangement is worth have their own piece in this guide.

4. 04

   You keep a signed copy

   MOHRE's guide tells workers to keep the signed offer. It is what the contract on arrival is compared against.

Is it a scam, or a real offer on bad terms?

The checks above separate a fake from a real firm. They do not separate a good offer from a poor one, and a real, licensed brokerage can make an offer that is lawful and still wrong for someone moving countries to accept.

A scam wants something from you before you arrive: money, identity documents, bank details. A poor offer asks very little of the firm: commission only, no starting supply of enquiries, every cost carried by you. The first is a matter for the police. The second is a business model, and the way to test it is the list of questions to put to any brokerage before signing, which has its own piece in this guide.

From abroad the second matters more than it would locally. You cannot judge a firm by walking into its office, and leaving a bad one means a second move. Before accepting, ask to speak to an agent who joined from abroad in the last year, and ask how the visa and the registration were handled for them.

Where do you report a fake offer?

Report it even if you paid nothing, because the next person may not have checked.

Questions about an offer or a recruiter go to MOHRE. The ministry's call centre is 600590000 inside the UAE, and its international call centre is 00971-68034000. The government portal also lists 009716-802-7666 and ask@mohre.gov.ae for enquiries related to employment contracts and recruitment.

Online fraud goes to Dubai Police through its eCrime platform, eCrime.ae, which Dubai Police describes as its official portal for reporting cybercrimes in Dubai. Dubai Police lists 901 for enquiries, and its app has an eCrime section. The government portal lists the same platform for reporting cyber-enabled financial crimes and scams.

The published eCrime guidance does not say whether reports from outside the UAE are accepted, so report it where you live as well, and tell your bank at once if money has moved. Keep everything: messages, the offer, payment receipts, and every name and number used. The eCrime guidance recommends gathering evidence such as screenshots, messages and transaction records before filing.