MOHRE Enquiry Work Permit: How to Check and Renew Online

A MOHRE enquiry work permit check tells you, in plain terms, whether the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) has approved, issued, expired, cancelled or flagged the permit attached to a specific employee and establishment. It is a status lookup rather than an application, and it is the fastest way to confirm where your paperwork actually stands before you sign a contract, fix a start date or begin a renewal. You get the current state of the file — not a new permit, an extension or a cleared ban.

What the MOHRE work permit enquiry actually tells you

MOHRE is the federal ministry that regulates private-sector employment in the UAE. When you run an enquiry, the portal returns the current state of a work permit or labour card linked to your establishment file. A labour card is the employee-side record that sits alongside the work permit; together they are what authorises someone to work legally for a specific employer.

Think of it as a window, not a switch. The portal shows you what the authority currently holds on record. It does not change that record.

What you can verify

• Permit type and issue status — whether the permit is still in process, approved, issued, expired or cancelled
• Employer and establishment details — which company and file the permit is attached to
• Contract status — whether the registered employment contract matches the permit
• Progress of an underlying transaction — useful when you are tracking an application that has been submitted but not yet decided

What it will not do

• It will not generate a new permit or a new labour card
• It will not extend a deadline that has already passed
• It will not formally clear a labour ban — that is a separate process with its own steps and fees
• It will not correct a wrong name, profession or salary band on an active permit

Why HR teams should check before hiring

Before you issue an offer, run an enquiry on the candidate’s file. If they still hold an active permit with another employer, the transfer can be blocked until that permit is properly cancelled. Finding this out after the offer is signed costs you weeks. Finding it out before costs you five minutes.

Why employees should check too

If you are the employee, verify three things against your own documents: your name as spelled on the permit, your registered profession, and your salary band. Errors here can quietly affect later visa steps, bank applications and even end-of-service calculations. Catch them while the file is still fresh.

MOHRE Enquiry Work Permit: How to Check Step by Step

This is the practical walkthrough most guides skip. Here is what actually happens on screen, and what to do when the result is not what you expected.

1. Open the MOHRE enquiry portal at inquiry.mohre.gov.ae.
2. Select the electronic work permit service. If you are tracking an application that has been submitted but not yet decided, use the transactions inquiry service instead. The two answer different questions.
3. Enter the work permit number and transaction number when prompted. These are the two fields most people are missing, and they are the reason a valid file can look invisible.
4. Review the returned status and compare it against what your employer, HR team or PRO told you. If the portal says “under process” and your contact says “done”, the portal wins.
5. Keep a dated screenshot or PDF of the result. If the status changes later or a dispute arises, that date-stamped record is worth more than a memory of a phone call.
6. If the portal returns no record, work through the usual causes: a wrong transaction number, a permit still sitting in draft, or an application that was never actually submitted.

A PRO, by the way, is a public relations officer — the person or firm that handles government paperwork on a company’s behalf. Many employers rely on one, which is exactly why it pays to verify independently.

What do the different MOHRE work permit stages mean?

Statuses are short words with large consequences. Here is what each one actually authorises.

The practical rule that saves the most trouble: “approved” is not “issued”. An approval means the authority has cleared the request. An issuance means the employee is legally cleared to work. Those are two different moments, and starting work between them creates a violation for both sides.

What numbers and documents do you need before you start?

Have these ready before you open the portal. Hunting for a reference number mid-search is how people end up convinced their permit has disappeared.

For HR teams, the fix is structural rather than heroic. Keep one internal tracker logging permit number, transaction number, issue date and expiry date for every employee. A single sheet like that eliminates most renewal misses, because nothing depends on someone remembering a conversation from eight months ago.

How do you renew a UAE work permit before it expires?

Renewal is a transaction, not a setting. Here is the sequence.

1. Check the current status on the enquiry portal and confirm the exact expiry date. Do not rely on a calendar reminder that someone typed in from memory.
2. Trigger the renewal transaction through MOHRE, usually via your PRO, a typing centre or a business services provider.
3. Submit updated documents — a valid passport, the Emirates ID, and any changed establishment details. Outdated documents are a leading cause of bounced transactions.
4. Pay the applicable official fee. Enquiry checks and labour complaints are free; issuance and renewal transactions carry their own fees that vary by permit type and duration. Confirm the current figure at the time of the transaction, because fee schedules change.
5. Re-check the portal after submission until the status reads issued or active. Only then file the confirmation and move on.

On timing: start well before expiry. A renewal initiated a few days before the deadline leaves no room for a rejection, a missing document or a portal queue. If your company is licensed in a free zone, confirm which authority holds your establishment file first — some steps sit with the free zone rather than MOHRE, and knowing that in advance prevents a wasted submission.

MOHRE enquiry costs, renewal fees and the real cost of being late

Checking your status and filing a labour complaint on MOHRE are free. That is the whole point of the portal — it exists so employers and employees can verify their position without paying for the privilege.

If you need a human answer, call the MOHRE call centre on 600 590 000. It is open 24/7, and the same number works on WhatsApp if you type “hi” to start. These details are confirmed in this MOHRE enquiry services guide.

Permit issuance and renewal are separate transactions with their own official fees. Those fees vary by permit type and duration, so confirm the current figure at the moment you transact rather than working from a number you read last year.

The expensive part is rarely the fee. It is the exposure. Working on an expired or unissued permit places both employer and employee in violation territory, and the consequences — fines, blocked transactions, ban flags that stall future hiring — cost far more than the renewal ever would. For HR teams, the cheapest strategy available is a renewal calendar that runs 60 to 90 days ahead of every expiry date.

Common mistakes that cause fines, bans and rejected renewals

These are the patterns that generate most of the avoidable problems we see.

• Confusing “approved” with “issued” and starting work before the permit is active.
• Letting a permit lapse while the employee keeps working. This is the single most common preventable violation.
• Renewing with outdated passport or Emirates ID documents, which makes the transaction bounce.
• Losing the transaction number and concluding the application never existed. It usually did.
• Assuming the employee’s file transferred automatically when the employer changed. It does not.
• Ignoring a status flag until renewal time, when it is far harder and slower to resolve.
• Relying on a verbal “it’s done” from a third party instead of checking the portal yourself.

Notice how many of these are communication failures rather than legal ones. Most permit problems are paperwork gaps that went unnoticed for a few weeks too long.

Can you check a labour ban or absconding case through MOHRE?

There is no standalone labour ban check tool published by MOHRE. If a ban or an absconding case exists, it typically appears inside your transaction or application status on the enquiry portal, or you can confirm your position by calling the MOHRE call centre on 600 590 000.

Bans commonly follow an absconding report, an unresolved complaint, or a permit or visa violation. Clearing one is a separate process with its own requirements — it is not a setting someone switches off in the portal.

If you are hiring, check before you issue the offer rather than after. A ban discovered late stalls the entire onboarding, and in a competitive market the candidate may simply take another role while you untangle it.

When to DIY, when to use a typing centre, and when to hand it to a PRO

Not every task needs the same level of help. Here is a simple way to decide.

The decision rule is straightforward: if the cost of a missed expiry exceeds the cost of outsourced handling, outsource it. For a company with no dedicated HR administrator, the paperwork gap — not the fee — is the real risk.

Whether you are forming a mainland company, setting up in a free zone, or expanding from an existing licence, the employment side runs on the same discipline. If you are weighing structures, our guide on how to get an instant licence in Dubai mainland explains how the licensing route affects your establishment file, and how to set up an offshore company in the UAE for trading covers the structure that sits outside the standard MOHRE employment model. Founders comparing options often pair that with our breakdown of e-commerce licence costs in Dubai or the remote work visa route in Dubai, which is a different category of permission entirely.

Arabic-speaking readers planning the company side first can start with كيفية بدء عمل تجاري في دبي خطوة بخطوة or كيف تبدأ مشروعاً صغيراً في الإمارات: دليل المبتدئين, and if you are setting up from overseas, هل يمكنني فتح شركة في دبي من الخارج؟ نعم، إليك الطريقة answers the sequence. For the wider regulatory picture, our MOHRE guide to registration, fees and fines goes deeper.

Turning a status check into a system

The enquiry portal is a five-minute task. What surrounds it — the tracker, the 60-to-90-day renewal window, the habit of verifying third-party claims against the record — is what keeps a company out of violation territory.

Start with one employee. Confirm the permit number and transaction number, note the expiry date, and diarise the renewal window. Then repeat it for everyone on your file. That is the entire system, and it works whether you run two permits or two hundred.

If you would rather hand the tracking over, our team at Al Ain Business Center handles MOHRE transactions, renewals and PRO work for companies across the UAE, with transparent AED pricing and a straightforward process from the first call. Book a free consultation and we will review your current permit status, flag anything expiring in the next quarter, and map out the renewals before they become urgent.