The law names twelve work permits. The government portal lists thirteen.

Why the count matters before the list does

The permit type is not paperwork trivia. It decides three things at once: who is allowed to file the application, how long the permit lasts before it has to be renewed, and which fee schedule it is priced on. A company that hires the same person on a different permit type pays a different amount, on a different clock, with a different set of conditions. Getting the type wrong is not a naming error — it is a costing error.

Article 6(1) opens with "Subject to the provisions of Article (6) of the Decree-Law, the types of work permits shall be determined as follows", and then lists them. Article 6(2) adds one line that most summaries drop: "New work permits may be created by resolution of the Minister in accordance with the provisions of the Decree-Law." The list is a floor, not a ceiling. That single clause is why the count on the government portal is not the count in the regulation.

The twelve in the regulation, as written

MOHRE's own explanatory page carries the same twelve. The wording above is the English text of the Executive Regulation published by the Ministry, which is marked "This is not an official translation" — the Arabic prevails.

The thirteenth, and where it comes from

It is not in the regulation because it did not have to be. Article 6(2) authorises the Minister to create new work permits by resolution, and Article 7(1)(f) lets the Minister add conditions for issuing them. A permit created that way is as real as the twelve; it simply lives in a ministerial resolution rather than in the Cabinet's list. Anyone reconciling the regulation against the portal and concluding that one of the two is wrong is reading a mechanism as a contradiction.

The practical point for a private tutor: this is the only permit in the set the portal describes as free of charge, and it runs two years. Tutoring on a freelance permit under clause (l) and tutoring on the private teacher permit are two different files with two different price tags.

How long each one lasts

The regulation does not set validity periods — it sets types. The durations come from the government portal and the individual MOHRE service pages, and they are not uniform.

The spread is the useful part. A student training permit expires in a quarter; a golden visa holder's permit runs two years. Hiring plans built on an assumed two-year renewal cycle break on the short ones.

Why the same permit costs AED 250 at one company and AED 3,450 at another

Article 7(2)(d) of the Executive Regulation states the rule outright: fees are paid "according to the type of permit and the category of the establishment, in accordance with the approved establishment classification system". Two variables, not one. The government portal puts the range at AED 250 to AED 3,450, "and it depends on the company's classification: A, B or C".

So the price of a permit is set partly by what you are hiring for and partly by how compliant your company has been. On MOHRE's published figures a two-year permit is AED 250 in the top category, AED 1,200 in the middle and AED 3,450 in the bottom one — a gap of AED 2,250 per expatriate hire that has nothing to do with the worker. The criteria that put a company in each tier are set by Cabinet Resolution No. 18 of 2022.

Work permits for UAE and GCC nationals are exempt from these fees at every category, which is a standing incentive sitting underneath the whole Emiratisation regime.

The conditions that apply to all of them

Article 7(1) sets six conditions for issuing any work permit:

• Age 18, "except for the juvenile permit and the student training or employment permit" — the two types that exist precisely to admit 15-to-18-year-olds under controlled conditions.
• Professional licensing where the legislation requires a licence to practise — doctors and nurses through the health authorities, teachers through the education authorities, advocates through the Ministry of Justice.
• Occupation must match the establishment's activity. This is the condition that quietly blocks the most applications: a company licensed for one thing cannot permit a role belonging to another.
• A valid establishment licence with no violations that suspend its activity.
• The application is filed by the legally authorised signatory of the establishment. On every permit except the freelance one, the applicant is the company, not the worker — however much the worker is the one driving it.
• Any other conditions determined by resolution of the Minister — the same open clause that produces new permit types.

Freelance is a permit and a definition

Clause (l) creates the permit; Article 8 defines the arrangement behind it. Freelance is "an independent and flexible work arrangement, whereby the natural person generates income by providing his services for a specified period of time or performing a task or providing a specific service, whether for individuals or establishments, whereas this natural person is in no way a worker for those individuals or establishments."

That last clause does the legal work. A freelancer is not a worker of the client, which means the client owes no gratuity, no annual leave, no notice and no WPS salary — and the freelancer has no wage protection complaint to file when an invoice goes unpaid. The trade for independence is the loss of the entire protective apparatus of the Decree-Law. Article 8(2) leaves the registration, renewal and cancellation mechanics to Cabinet resolutions issued on the Minister's proposal, which is why the operational detail for freelancers lives outside the regulation and shifts more often than the statute does.

Permit type and contract type are two different choices

People conflate them constantly. Article 10(4) requires the parties to contract using the Ministry's forms, and lists six: full-time, part-time, temporary, flexible, remote and job sharing. Article 5 adds definitions for the two newer ones — remote work is performed wholly or partly outside the workplace "whether the work is part-time or full-time", and job sharing divides tasks among more than one worker, with those workers "dealt with pursuant to the rules of part-time work".

So the permit answers on what legal basis is this person allowed to work here; the contract answers on what terms. Article 10(3) allows a change from one work type to another with the agreement of both parties, payment of all entitlements arising under the original contract, and compliance with the Ministry's procedures — a sequence worth following exactly, because the entitlements clause means a switch does not quietly reset the clock on what is already owed.

Choosing the right one

1. Is the person outside the country? Recruitment permit (a), or the one-mission permit (e) if it is a defined temporary project.
2. Already employed elsewhere onshore? Transfer permit (b) — see the transfer routes and the 90-day window.
3. On a spouse's or parent's visa? Family-sponsorship permit (c). No new residence file is opened.
4. A fixed piece of work with an end date, for someone already here? Temporary permit (d) — six months, AED 50 in federal fees, and the only route open to a worker whose labour case is in court.
5. Fewer hours than a full-timer, possibly across several employers? Part-time permit (f) — one year, and two formulas decide the leave and the gratuity.
6. Aged 15 to 18? Juvenile permit (g) or student training permit (h); the Article 7(1)(a) age floor does not apply to these two.
7. Emirati or GCC national? Permit (i), exempt from the classification fees. Training an Emirati on a qualification: national trainee permit (k).
8. Golden visa holder? Permit (j) — the residence already exists; the establishment still files a permit to employ them. See golden visa eligibility.
9. Working for yourself, for several clients, with no sponsor? Freelance permit (l), and Article 8's definition — with no employment protections attached.
10. Teaching privately? The private teacher permit, outside the twelve, free of charge for two years.

Sources

• Cabinet Resolution No. (1) of 2022 Concerning the Executive Regulation of Federal Decree-Law No. (33) of 2021 — Article 5 on remote work and job sharing, Article 6(1)(a)–(l) listing the twelve permit types and Article 6(2) on new permits by ministerial resolution, Article 7 on conditions, renewal fees by permit type and establishment category, and grounds for refusal, Article 8 defining freelance, Article 10(3)–(4) on contract forms and switching between them, MOHRE, full English text (PDF)
• Work permits — the thirteen types listed by the Government with their validity periods, the private teacher permit granted free of charge for two years, and the AED 250 to AED 3,450 fee range by company classification, updated 13 August 2026, u.ae, official UAE Government portal
• Types of work permits — MOHRE's own list of twelve permit types with descriptions, MOHRE
• Issuance of a New Work Permit — Part Time Work Permit — one-year permit duration, federal fees of AED 50, business-centre commission capped at AED 72, two working days, no bank guarantee, insurance or electronic quota, MOHRE service page
• Issuance of a New Work Permit — Temporary Work Permits — six-month duration, federal fees of AED 50, two working days, MOHRE service page
• Cabinet Resolution No. (18) of 2022 Concerning the Classification of Private Sector Establishments — the three categories that set which end of the fee range a company pays, UAE Legislation portal
• Federal Decree by Law No. (33) of 2021 Concerning Regulating Labour Relations and its amendments — Article 6 on work permits, Article 7 on work types, MOHRE, consolidated English text (PDF)

Verified 7 September 2026. The twelve permit types, their definitions, the Article 6(2) power to create new ones, the Article 7(1) conditions, the Article 7(2)(d) fee rule and the Article 8 freelance definition are quoted or closely paraphrased from the MOHRE English text of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022. The thirteen-item list, the validity periods and the AED 250–3,450 range come from the UAE Government portal's work permits page as it stood on 7 September 2026, showing a last update of 13 August 2026. The AED 50 federal fee, the AED 72 commission cap, the one-year part-time duration and the two-working-day processing time were read on the live MOHRE service page for the part-time permit on the day of publication. General information, not legal advice.