How to Hire a Maid or Nanny in the UAE: The Complete Tadbeer Guide (2026)

In the UAE, hiring a maid, nanny, or any other domestic worker runs through one regulated system: Tadbeer, the network of MOHRE-licensed domestic-worker service centres, operating under the country's domestic-worker law. Whether you want a live-in housemaid, a nanny for the kids, a cook, or a driver, the recruitment, the visa, and the contract all have to go through a licensed channel — and for most families, that channel is a Tadbeer centre.

This guide walks you through the whole thing in plain language: what Tadbeer is, who you're allowed to hire, whether you qualify to sponsor, the routes available to you, what it costs in 2026, how long it takes, and the obligations that come once your worker arrives. If you just want the bird's-eye overview, our full guide to hiring a maid in the UAE covers the basics; this article goes deep on Tadbeer, visas, and cost.

First, what is Tadbeer, and what's the law behind it?

Tadbeer centres are private, MOHRE-licensed offices that handle domestic-worker recruitment and sponsorship on behalf of families. They were set up to replace the old, unregulated agency model with a standardized one, where fees, contracts, and worker protections are tied to government rules. In day-to-day terms, a Tadbeer centre is where you go to recruit a worker from abroad, transfer one already in the country, or hire a worker the centre itself sponsors.

Behind it all sits Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2022 on Domestic Workers, which came into force in December 2022 and is administered by MOHRE across all seven emirates. It supersedes the older 2017 domestic-worker law and sets the framework every Tadbeer centre and every employer has to follow, covering contracts, rest days, leave, end-of-service pay, and anti-abuse protections. We'll come back to what that means for your obligations later; for now, the key point is that hiring a domestic worker in the UAE is a regulated, contract-based process, not a private handshake.

Who you can hire: the 19 domestic-worker categories

One detail that surprises first-time employers: "domestic worker" is a specific legal category, and the visa has to match the job. MOHRE recognises 19 domestic-worker professions, and the worker you hire must be sponsored under one of them.

The 19 categories cover far more than housemaids. They include:

• Housemaid, housekeeper, and servant
• Nanny and babysitter
• Cook and private cook
• Private or family driver
• Home nurse, caregiver, and personal carer
• Gardener and farmer
• Private tutor and governess
• Personal trainer
• House guard / security guard
• Plus more specialized roles such as household shepherd or farm caretaker, falcon trainer, horse groomer, sailor, personal assistant, and private agricultural engineer

For most families, this matters in a simple way: the role you sponsor for has to reflect the work the person will actually do. If you need childcare, you hire a nanny; if you need help around the house, a housemaid; if you need both a driver and a maid, those are two separate sponsorships under two separate categories.

Are you eligible to sponsor?

Before anything else, you need to qualify as a sponsor. The rules are assessed at the household level and turn mainly on income, accommodation, and your residency status.

Income. Expatriate sponsors need a household income of at least AED 25,000 per month, proved with a recent salary certificate and bank statements covering the prior 3 months. This is set by MOHRE's current domestic-worker work-permit guidance and is the live threshold as of mid-2026 — always reconfirm with your emirate's residency authority before relying on it.

Do you have to be married? Not as a blanket legal rule. The law itself doesn't state a marriage requirement; instead, MOHRE and the residency authorities look at whether you genuinely need a domestic worker and can house one appropriately. That's easiest to demonstrate as a family household, which is why marriage often comes up in practice, but single sponsors who meet the income and accommodation conditions can and do sponsor workers, for example a single professional sponsoring a driver or carer.

Accommodation. You must be able to provide suitable housing. For a live-in maid, that usually means a private or semi-private room in your home, and some emirates ask for a tenancy contract (such as Ejari in Dubai) or proof of property ownership to show the household can host a live-in worker.

Insurance. You'll need to provide medical insurance for the worker, which is mandatory in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and expected elsewhere.

Emiratis vs expatriates, and which emirate you're in. Emirati households often qualify under more flexible criteria than the expatriate rules above. And while the employment relationship itself is governed by the same federal MOHRE law everywhere, the visa is issued through your local immigration authority: GDRFA in Dubai (often via the DubaiNow app) and the ICP federal system in the other emirates. The eligibility criteria mirror MOHRE's rules either way, but the screens and documentation can differ slightly by emirate.

Choose your route: Tadbeer 2-year, monthly, or private sponsorship

This is the decision that shapes everything else — your cost, your effort, and how long you wait. There are three main routes, and they differ mainly in who legally sponsors the worker.

1. The Tadbeer 2-year sponsorship package. The Tadbeer centre handles recruitment, arrival, and all the paperwork, but at the end of it, you become the worker's sponsor on a two-year contract. You pay the worker's salary directly each month. This is the most common route for families who want a long-term, live-in worker and are happy to take on the sponsorship.

2. The Tadbeer monthly (flexible) package. Here the worker stays sponsored by the Tadbeer centre, not you, and is deployed to your home full-time or part-time. The centre handles the visa, insurance, salary, and compliance; you pay a monthly or daily package fee and never become the legal sponsor. This suits families who want flexibility, a shorter commitment, or part-time help, without the responsibility of sponsorship.

3. Private / direct family sponsorship. You sponsor the worker in your own name and manage the government steps yourself (often through DubaiNow or the ICP e-channels). This is still permitted in 2026, but with an important condition: the recruitment must still go through a MOHRE-licensed channel. In other words, you can be the sponsor, but you can't recruit a worker off the books — they have to enter through a licensed office or transfer legitimately from another sponsor.

Not sure which route fits your budget and timeline? Our Hiring Route Finder asks a few quick questions and points you to the option that makes sense for your situation, including whether you're recruiting from abroad or taking on someone already in the UAE.

What the 2-year package includes, and the private route step by step

What's bundled into a Tadbeer 2-year package. Although the exact inclusions vary by centre, a 2-year package typically covers the full cycle to get your worker legally living and working in your home:

• Recruitment from abroad, or a local transfer
• The MOHRE work permit
• The entry permit
• Status change after arrival
• The medical fitness test
• Emirates ID
• Residence-visa stamping
• Medical insurance
• Sometimes a return air ticket at the end of the contract

After deployment, you pay the worker's monthly salary directly under the MOHRE contract.

The private / direct sponsorship route, step by step. If you're sponsoring in your own name, the sequence looks like this (exact screens vary by emirate):

• Check eligibility and gather documents — confirm you meet the income threshold, have valid residency and accommodation proof, and collect the worker's passport copies, photos, and any required certificates.
• Apply for the MOHRE domestic-worker work permit — through MOHRE channels, or via a licensed office acting on your behalf, for the correct category among the 19.
• Apply for the ICP/GDRFA entry permit — using DubaiNow in Dubai or the ICP e-channels in other emirates.
• Change status after arrival — convert the entry permit into a residence application without the worker having to leave the country.
• Complete the medical fitness test — at an approved centre.
• Apply for the Emirates ID — submit biometrics.
• Stamp the residence visa — issued under your sponsorship.
• Activate the contract and insurance — register the MOHRE standard contract and arrange the mandatory health insurance.

Whichever route you choose, the legal recruitment still flows through a licensed channel, which is exactly what keeps you and the worker protected.

What it costs in 2026

There's no single price, because the two biggest variables are the worker's nationality and the route you take. The cleanest way to think about it is to separate government fees (largely standardized) from Tadbeer/agency fees (which vary by centre). Every figure below is an indicative 2025–2026 market range, not an official tariff, so treat it as a planning guide and confirm live prices before you commit.

The Tadbeer 2-year package (you become the sponsor). The one-time Tadbeer service fee for overseas recruitment commonly lands around AED 8,500–11,000, depending on nationality, on top of the government fees. To give a sense of how centres structure it, some list packages from around AED 8,500 one-time plus a small monthly admin fee (around AED 150), and others at roughly AED 10,900 one-time with no monthly admin. The worker's salary is separate and paid by you directly.

The monthly (office-sponsored) package. Here you pay an all-in monthly fee that bundles the visa, insurance, and salary. Typical 2025–2026 ranges run about AED 2,300–3,500 per month, varying by nationality and hours — for example around AED 2,300/month for some African and Asian nationalities and AED 3,200–3,500/month for Filipino or Indonesian workers. Part-time arrangements are often quoted at roughly AED 120–200 per day.

Government fee components (private sponsorship). If you process the visa yourself, expect a set of standardized but emirate-variable fees. Illustrative 2024–2026 ranges include:

• Entry permit: around AED 300–1,144, depending on sponsor type and channel
• Status change (in-country): around AED 500–744
• Residence visa (2-year): often around AED 350–400 in Dubai examples
• Emirates ID (2-year): around AED 272–375
• Medical fitness test: around AED 300–1,000, depending on standard vs express
• Mandatory health insurance: indicative official figures start around AED 150+, though real premiums for domestic workers are usually higher
• Refundable deposit: non-citizen sponsors are commonly asked for a security deposit (often around AED 2,000)

Ongoing costs. Beyond the upfront fees, budget for the monthly salary (by far the largest long-term cost, and highly nationality-dependent), insurance renewal, and visa renewal every two years.

Rather than guess, use our maid cost calculator and nanny cost calculator to estimate the monthly salary and one-time cost for the role and nationality you have in mind, with more in our free tools.

How long it takes

Timelines vary more than costs, and there's an important caveat up front: MOHRE does not publish a guaranteed end-to-end turnaround for domestic-worker hiring. The ranges below come from licensed Tadbeer centres and specialist 2026 guides, so treat them as realistic expectations rather than promises, and rely on the timeframe committed in your specific package.

Through Tadbeer (2-year package). For a standard Tadbeer-mediated hire, the process commonly takes 2 to 4 weeks from application to the worker arriving and starting work, assuming documents and any overseas paperwork are ready. If the worker is still overseas and needs full recruitment, foreign clearances, and travel, families are often advised to expect 4 to 8 weeks total, with the UAE side of that window closer to 2 to 4 weeks. Source-country procedures and nationality can stretch this, so build in a buffer.

Local transfer (worker already in the UAE). Transferring a worker from another employer is faster: the MOHRE transfer step is commonly around 3 to 5 working days once everyone agrees and documents are submitted, with the full door-to-door process often landing in the 1 to 3 week range when no exit and re-entry is required.

Private / direct sponsorship, step by step. The individual government steps are quick on their own:

• MOHRE work permit: roughly 1 working day (under the UAE's 2026 efficiency reforms, the underlying approval is close to instant when the data is clean; in practice, allow same-day to 1–3 days)
• Entry permit (ICP/GDRFA/DubaiNow): about 2 to 7 working days
• Medical fitness results: 24 to 48 hours standard, often same- or next-day with express service
• Status change: typically 1 to 3 working days, alongside stamping
• Residence-visa stamping: around 2 to 5 working days
• Emirates ID: about 7 to 14 days after biometrics

Add it all up — with travel, agency coordination, and any rework — and private sponsorship often runs 4 to 8 weeks door-to-door, which is why many families lean on Tadbeer to compress the timeline.

The monthly (office-sponsored) route is the fastest. Because the worker is already on a valid visa under the Tadbeer centre, there's no new residence process for you. Deployment is often 1 to 5 days from signing the service contract, and some centres advertise same- or next-day starts when a suitable worker is already available.

Express vs standard, and Dubai vs other emirates. Choosing express medical and being prompt with biometrics can shave several days off, bringing a well-managed case toward the two-week end of the range. Dubai-hosted processing (via DubaiNow and GDRFA) tends to sit at the faster end of the typical window, while full private sponsorship in some other emirates can lean a little longer. None of this is a published per-emirate SLA, so confirm timing with your centre or channel.

The contract and your obligations

Once your worker is on board, the relationship is governed by the standard MOHRE contract and Federal Decree-Law 9 of 2022. The contract is a fixed-term, standardized document — you don't write it from scratch — and it locks in the terms that protect both sides. The headline obligations to plan for:

• A standard written contract setting out job title, salary, rest days, and benefits, with a probation period that may not exceed six months.
• Daily rest: at least 12 hours of rest per day, including a minimum of 8 consecutive hours.
• A weekly rest day: one paid day off per week; if the worker works it, they're owed an alternative day or a day's pay.
• Annual leave: at least 30 days of paid leave per year of service, with wages paid before annual leave travel.
• Sick leave: up to 30 days per year, on a graded paid/unpaid basis.
• End-of-service gratuity (Article 19 of Decree-Law 9/2022): after one year of continuous service, calculated on the standard UAE formula — 21 days' wage for each year of the first 5 years, plus 30 days' wage for each additional year, with the total gratuity capped at two years' wage. After the contract ends you must settle the gratuity within 10 days unless the worker has breached the contract. The UAE Government end-of-service guidance walks through worked examples.
• Housing, food, and clothing suitable for the job, plus medical treatment or insurance and a medical fitness exam after arrival.
• Dignity protections: the law prohibits discrimination, harassment, and forced labour, and retaining a worker's passport is treated as unlawful in UAE practice.

Done properly, none of this is onerous; it's mostly a matter of paying on time, providing the agreed conditions, and handling any change formally through MOHRE rather than by private arrangement.

Paying the salary: WPS — what's mandatory, what's not

How you pay matters as much as how much. UAE law splits domestic-worker categories into two groups for the Wages Protection System (WPS), the electronic payroll system MOHRE uses to monitor salary payments. WPS is mandatory (since 1 April 2025) for five categories: Private Agricultural Engineer, Private Representative, Home Caregiver, Private Teacher, and Private Trainer. WPS is optional for the remaining 14 categories — including nanny, maid, housekeeper, cook, and private driver, the roles most UAE families hire. For optional categories you can still pay through MOHRE-approved cash channels (banks and exchange houses), but MOHRE strongly encourages WPS even when not required because it creates an auditable salary trail that protects both sides in a dispute.

Payment deadline: Under Article 19 of Decree-Law 9/2022, salary is due monthly and must be paid within 10 days of the due date. Late payment opens the door to MOHRE complaints and file suspensions. June 2026 note: the unified first-of-the-month salary rule announced on 1 June 2026 applies to private-sector establishments, not to households hiring domestic workers — the 5/14 split and the 10-day rule remain the operating standard for households in 2026. See MOHRE's WPS overview for the current rule set.

Common mistakes to avoid

Most of the trouble families run into is avoidable, and it usually comes from trying to shortcut the system:

• Recruiting through an unlicensed channel. Hiring a worker off the books is prohibited under the law and leaves you and the worker with no protection. Recruitment must go through a MOHRE-licensed office or a legitimate transfer.
• Paying salary in cash by default. With WPS expanding, pay through a bank or digital channel from month one to stay compliant and keep a record.
• Retaining the worker's passport. Passport confiscation is treated as unlawful; the document stays with the worker.
• Skipping insurance. Medical insurance is mandatory in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and expected elsewhere; it's not optional.
• Sponsoring under the wrong category. The visa must match one of the 19 professions and reflect the actual job.
• Assuming you must be married, or assuming you automatically qualify. Eligibility is assessed at the household level on income and accommodation; check before you pay any fees.

Conclusion

Hiring a maid or nanny in the UAE feels complicated mostly because it's unfamiliar, not because it's genuinely hard. Once you can see the shape of it, the path is clear: everything runs through MOHRE-licensed Tadbeer centres under Decree-Law 9 of 2022, and your two real decisions are which route to take — Tadbeer package, monthly, or private sponsorship — and whether to recruit from abroad or take on someone already in the country. From there it's a matter of confirming you're eligible, choosing your route, budgeting for government and agency fees separately, and meeting your obligations once the worker arrives.

Take it one step at a time, keep everything within the licensed system, and verify the live figures for costs and timelines before you commit, since those are the details that move.

When you're ready to start, use our Hiring Route Finder to find the route that fits your situation, or browse available maids and nannies to see who's available right now. And to budget with confidence, our cost calculators give you a real estimate before you decide.