Founders who move engineering teams to Dubai tend to budget for two things, the free-zone licence and the salaries, and then discover a third category of cost that nobody itemised: the per-head compliance stack, and the housing reality that decides whether the people you relocated are still there in a year. Both are knowable in advance. Here is what a hire actually costs beyond salary in 2026, the one contract step that prevents most disputes, and the commute arithmetic that governs retention more than the office does.
The per-hire cost stack
Every employee on a UAE residence visa carries a fixed set of one-off and recurring costs, most of them paid by the employer. Free zones bundle some of them into a visa package; mainland companies pay the ministries directly. Either way the shape is the same.
| Item | Frequency | Indicative cost (AED) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employment visa or work permit | Every 2 years | 3,000 to 7,000 in a free zone; 300 to 5,000 on the mainland | Free-zone packages include the entry permit and stamping; mainland fees depend on company category |
| Medical fitness test | Per visa issue or renewal | 300 to 700 | Faster service costs more |
| Emirates ID | Per visa term | 100 per year of validity + 100 | AED 20 a day late fine after the grace period |
| Health insurance | Annual | From about 1,000 for basic cover; 3,000 to 8,000 for plans engineers expect | Mandatory nationwide; Dubai and Abu Dhabi set minimum benefits |
| ILOE unemployment insurance | Annual | 60 or 120 plus VAT | Employee’s obligation on paper; pay it centrally |
| Establishment card, PRO time, attestation | Per hire | 500 to 1,500 | Degree attestation if the job title requires it |
| Relocation and first-month housing | One-off | 5,000 to 15,000 | Depends on what the offer promises |
Add it up and a mid-level engineer costs roughly AED 12,000 to 30,000 in the first year before salary, most of it in the first two months and most of the variation in the health plan and the relocation support. The number that surprises founders is not the visa but the health insurance, because the difference between the legal minimum and the plan a senior engineer will accept is several thousand dirhams a head.
The contract step that prevents most disputes
A UAE hire signs an offer letter, and then, once in the country, a labour contract is registered with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (or with the free-zone authority, which follows the same law). The registered contract is the enforceable one. The most common employer mistake is a registered contract that splits salary between basic pay and allowances differently from the offer letter, usually to reduce the basic figure that end-of-service gratuity is calculated on. Employees notice, because the basic figure also sets their unemployment-insurance category and their ability to sponsor family.
Tell every new hire to view their approved labour contract online through MOHRE’s View Approved Contract service with their Emirates ID; the registered salary and job title, not the offer letter, are what MOHRE enforces in a dispute. Making the check part of onboarding costs nothing and removes the single most frequent cause of an early resignation: the feeling, three months in, that the numbers moved.
The housing reality
Dubai rent is the largest line in any employee’s budget and the one that has moved most in the last three years. Engineers on a strong package live in the Marina, JLT or Downtown, walk or take the metro to work, and are not price-sensitive. Everyone below that band makes a different decision: they live in Sharjah, where a comparable flat rents for markedly less, and they commute across the border by bus. Founders who relocate a team of eight and imagine them all in the Marina are usually right about two of them.
The Sharjah commute, honestly
Budget for the reality that junior staff will live in Sharjah: the Union to Sharjah E303 timetable shows a 45 to 90-minute ride for AED 10 with departures every 15 to 20 minutes, but the evening peak on Al Ittihad Road can double it. The E303 runs from Union Square in Deira to Al Jubail station in central Sharjah, the E307 does the same from Deira City Centre, and both connect at the Dubai end to the Red and Green metro lines. An engineer living in Al Nahda and working in Internet City is looking at a door-to-door commute of 90 minutes each way on a normal day and more on a bad one.
That commute is the retention variable. Staff who make it will leave for an employer closer to home at equal pay, and they will leave a company that schedules a 6 PM stand-up. Three responses work, in rough order of cost: a transport allowance of a few hundred dirhams a month that covers the bus with margin; two remote days a week, which cuts the commute cost by 40 percent at no cost to you; and, for the people you most want to keep, a housing allowance large enough to put them on the Dubai side of the border.
What to put in the offer
- The salary split, in writing, matching what will be registered: basic, housing, transport, other.
- Which health plan, by name and network, not just the word insurance.
- Who pays the Emirates ID, medical and visa on renewal, not only on hire.
- A transport or housing allowance sized for where the person will actually live.
- The remote-days policy, because for a Sharjah commuter it is worth more than the allowance.
Done this way, the relocation cost is predictable and the team stays. Done the usual way, with a visa budget and a Marina assumption, the cost is the same and the team turns over at month nine.
Fees and fares checked September 2026. Free-zone visa package prices vary by zone and are indicative.
