PRO services in Dubai: frequently asked questions

A PRO, or public relations officer, lodges a company's government transactions. In practice that means preparing and submitting applications for trade licences and renewals, establishment cards, work permits, entry permits, residence visas, Emirates ID, medical fitness bookings, attestation and licence amendments, and attending typing centres, Tasheel, Amer, the notary and immigration counters to complete them.

A PRO is a role. A corporate PRO service is a retained arrangement that supplies the role along with the calendar, the portal custody, the document control and the reporting. The transactions are identical. What differs is whether anyone is accountable for knowing what falls due next.

Two components should always be visible: the government fees, which are set by the authorities and vary by transaction, and the provider's service fee. Retainers are usually banded by transaction volume rather than headcount alone. Treat any single all-in price per visa with caution, because it either absorbs fee changes or hides margin inside a government charge.

No, and deliberately so. Government fees are paid on the company's behalf and recharged at cost with the receipt attached. The retainer covers our work. Keeping them separate is what allows a finance team to reconcile the spend and an auditor to test it.

Yes. There is no requirement to employ a PRO, and many small companies handle transactions directly through the relevant portals. The question is practical rather than legal: at what point does the volume, the number of entities and the cost of a missed deadline justify a dedicated function.

It is the company's registration with the immigration and labour systems, and it gates employment transactions. When it lapses, new work permits and visa activity stop. Because nothing else signals its expiry, it is one of the most common causes of an unexpected hiring freeze.

The number of work permits a licence may hold, assessed with reference to the licensed activity and the registered premises among other factors. A quota increase can therefore depend on a property decision, which is why it belongs in the hiring plan rather than in the offer process.

It depends on which steps can run in parallel, on appointment availability, and on how quickly the employee attends the medical and biometrics. The controllable part is document preparation and submission timing. The uncontrollable part is authority processing. A provider should commit to the first and be transparent about the second.

Penalties accrue, and continued non-renewal leads to restrictions that reach employment and banking activity, not only trading. The specific penalty structure differs between mainland and each free zone and should be confirmed for the licence in question.

For mainland licences a registered tenancy forms part of the renewal file, and quota is linked to premises. That makes the lease a licensing dependency held by a department that does not usually think of itself as part of the licensing process.

Often less, because the free zone portal handles more of the process directly. The need rises sharply when a group holds free zone and mainland entities together, since the two follow different authorities, different employment rules and different renewal cycles.

Yes. A transfer runs on a signed inventory of original documents, portal credentials, powers of attorney and transactions in progress, followed by re-registering portal access in the company's name. The first deliverable is a register of every licence, card and visa with its expiry date.

The company, with the provider added as an authorised user. A provider who owns the credentials owns the exit, and recovering access from a departed individual is materially harder than setting it up correctly at the start.

Tasheel centres handle MOHRE labour transactions. Amer centres handle Dubai residency and immigration transactions. Typing centres prepare and submit applications for both. Most employment files touch all three.

No. The requirement is driven by the job title and the licensed activity rather than by seniority. Checking it before the offer letter is issued prevents both unnecessary attestation and a visa that stalls at the permit stage.

Far enough that a dependency can still be fixed. For a licence that means starting when the tenancy position is checked. For a visa book it means a calendar built at the start of the year rather than a reminder inbox.

Yes, noting that Abu Dhabi runs through different service centres and, for some processes, different timelines. Groups holding entities in several emirates are tracked with each entity against its own authority rather than assuming Dubai practice applies throughout.

Establish the exact status first, because the position differs depending on whether the visa was cancelled, expired or never issued, and the remedy differs with it. Guessing produces the wrong application and a second fine. This is one to raise the same day it is noticed.

No, and neither can anyone else. Approval sits with the authority. What can be committed to is submission timing, document completeness and accurate assessment of eligibility before an application is made.

A scoping call covering entity count, headcount, renewal dates and what falls due in the next 90 days. It is followed by a position review that produces a register of every licence, card and visa, which is yours whether or not the engagement proceeds.