PRO outsourcing in Dubai
For companies whose PRO has resigned, is about to, or has become the only person who knows how anything gets filed.
PRO outsourcing transfers the public relations officer function from an employee to a managed team. The company keeps ownership of its portals, licences and documents. The provider supplies the people, the calendar, the counter attendance and the reporting.
The usual trigger is a resignation. The better trigger is the realisation that one person holds every credential, every relationship and every expiry date in their own head.
The cost comparison nobody publishes
An in-house PRO looks cheaper than a retainer until the full carrying cost is assembled. The line items below are the ones companies routinely leave out of the comparison.
| Cost line | Frequently counted | Frequently missed |
|---|---|---|
| Salary and allowances | Yes | Nothing missed here |
| Employment visa, medical, Emirates ID, insurance | Sometimes | Renewal every two years |
| End of service gratuity accrual | Rarely | Accrues from day one |
| Vehicle, fuel, parking, Salik | Sometimes | Counter work is a driving job |
| Cover during annual leave and sick leave | Rarely | Usually absorbed as delay rather than cost |
| Training on portal and rule changes | Rarely | Rules move more than once a year |
| Cost of a missed renewal or a lapsed permit | No | The largest and least predictable line |
| Recruitment and handover on resignation | No | Two to three months of degraded service |
The transfer, step by step
The risk in outsourcing a PRO function is not the ongoing service. It is the fortnight in which the function changes hands. This is how that fortnight is controlled.
Inventory before anything moves
Original passports, licences, certificates, powers of attorney, portal credentials and pending transactions are listed and signed for. Missing items are identified while the outgoing PRO is still contactable.
Credential reset in the company's name
Portal accounts are re-registered to a company email and phone number under the company's control, not an individual's. This single step removes the most common point of failure.
Register build
Every entity, licence, card, permit and visa is dated and loaded into the calendar. Anything already overdue is flagged in the first week rather than the first quarter.
Pending transaction handover
Live applications are listed with their reference numbers and current stage, and each is either completed by the outgoing party or restarted deliberately, never left ambiguous.
Powers of attorney
New POAs are drafted, notarised and, where required, translated, so submissions can proceed without the departing employee's involvement.
First statement
The first monthly statement establishes the baseline: what was inherited, what was corrected, what falls due in the next 90 days.
Interim and project cover
Not every situation calls for a permanent change. Three arrangements are common.
- Gap cover. A defined period between a resignation and a replacement starting, priced monthly with no minimum term beyond the period agreed.
- Peak cover. A hiring round, an office move or a group restructuring that would overwhelm one internal person, run as a fixed-fee project alongside the existing PRO.
- Supervision. The company keeps its PRO, and we hold the register, review the calendar monthly and act as the escalation point. Suited to companies whose PRO is capable but unsupervised.
PRO outsourcing: the practical questions
Our PRO resigned and we cannot access the immigration portal. Can that be recovered?
In most cases yes, though the route depends on which portal and whose details were used at registration. Recovery normally requires a company letter, the trade licence, the passport and Emirates ID of an authorised signatory, and attendance at the relevant service centre. It is slower than doing it correctly at the outset, which is why credential reset is the second step of every transfer.
Is outsourcing the PRO function permitted?
Companies routinely appoint external service providers to lodge government transactions on their behalf, supported by a power of attorney and, where relevant, authorised user access. What cannot be outsourced is the legal responsibility, which stays with the company and its authorised signatory. Any provider suggesting otherwise is describing something else.
How long does a transfer take?
The inventory and register build take a few working days. Notarised powers of attorney and portal re-registration depend on authority and notary availability rather than on us, and are the items most likely to extend the timeline.
Can we bring the function back in-house later?
Yes, and the structure is designed for it. Because portals stay registered to the company and the register is maintained in a format the company holds, an exit is a handover rather than a reconstruction. The inventory is returned signed, in the same form it was received.
Do you cover Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates?
Yes, with the caveat that Abu Dhabi transactions run through different service centres and, for some processes, different timelines. Where a group holds entities in several emirates, the register shows each one against its own authority rather than assuming Dubai practice applies everywhere.
Talk to the PRO desk
A 20 minute scoping call covers entity count, headcount, renewal dates and the transactions falling due in the next 90 days.