MOHRE, Tasheel and Amer: keeping several companies’ government work on time

In the UAE, a PRO (public relations officer) is the person who handles a company’s government transactions. Despite the title, the job has nothing to do with media. It covers employees’ work permits and residence visas, Emirates IDs and medical tests, and the company’s own licence and registrations.

Many groups share one PRO across several companies, or use an outside PRO service. Either way, one person ends up responsible for dozens of dates and documents.

In shortThe PRO keeps a company legally able to hire and operate. When their work slips, the whole company feels it.

Four names come up in almost every PRO conversation:

• MOHRE (Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation): work permits, employment contracts and the company’s labour file.
• Tasheel: MOHRE-authorised service centres for mainland companies, where work permit and contract transactions are processed.
• Amer: the service centres of GDRFA Dubai for entry permits, status changes and residence visas in Dubai.
• ICP (Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security): the Emirates ID and the establishment card.

The company’s own registrations sit alongside these: the trade licence and Ejari for the office lease.

The order matters. For a new employee, the labour steps with MOHRE come before the entry permit or status change, which come before the medical test, Emirates ID, health insurance and the residence visa. Start a step too early and the visit is wasted.

In shortKnowing which office handles what, and in which order, saves more time than any shortcut.

Every company carries two calendars at once: its own, and one for each employee.

• Company: trade licence, Ejari, establishment card.
• Each employee: work permit and contract, residence visa, Emirates ID, passport, health insurance.

For a group of four companies with a few dozen employees each, that quickly adds up to hundreds of dates, each on its own cycle.

The official figures are clear, and they add up fast across several companies:

• Work permits: MOHRE charges AED 200 for each month a work permit is not renewed or cancelled after it expires, up to AED 2,000. Renewal can start 59 days before expiry (MOHRE).
• Emirates ID: after a 30-day grace period, ICP charges AED 20 for each day of delay, up to AED 1,000 (ICP).

The fines are only part of it. A late item can hold up other transactions, and the time spent fixing it is time not spent on new hires and renewals.

In shortThe cheapest renewal is the one that starts early.

One company is manageable from a spreadsheet. Several companies are not, for four reasons:

• Requests arrive from different managers, by email and WhatsApp.
• Each company has its own deadlines, fees and people who approve.
• When something stalls, it is unclear who it is waiting on.
• Progress updates for each management team take hours to put together.

Whatever tools you use, these habits keep several companies on time:

• Keep every expiry date, for every company and employee, in one shared place, not in personal notes.
• Start renewals early: work permits can be renewed 59 days before they expire.
• Write down the order each transaction follows, so no step is started too early.
• Record who each open item is waiting on: management, the employee or a government office.
• Send each management team a short weekly update instead of answering questions one by one.

In shortIf the plan lives in one person’s memory, it is not a plan.

At Netiliume, every project follows four stages: we map how you work and find the gaps, show you a working demo before we build, launch with your team, and keep improving after go-live. The price follows the scope. It starts with a free audit, where we look at how your business runs today and what would help most.