All domestic worker visa services — including application, renewal and cancellation of residence permits — can now be accessed through the Dubai Now app, authorities announced on Wednesday.
The ‘Dubai Now’ smart app now serves as the sole channel for the issuance, renewal, and cancellation of domestic workers’ residence permits.
This initiative is aimed at simplifying the process and significantly reducing the time involved in such transactions. This unified platform was a project put together by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (Mohre) and the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA).
With the new ‘Domestic Worker Package’, the number of service channels involved in transactions has been cut from four to one, and the steps required to complete the process have been reduced from 12 to four.
Visits to service centres were slashed from eight to two, and the processing time has been reduced from 30 to five days.
The number of required documents has also been cut from 10 to just four, leading to a cost reduction of Dh400 per transaction.
How the service works
For those who are applying for a domestic worker’s residency, here are the steps:
- Customers can easily access these residency services through the “Dubai Now” app.
- One will have to fill out a unified service package form, where he/she will enter the domestic worker’s details, and submit identity and passport information.
- The employment contract is signed electronically within the app.
- The worker will have to undergo medical examination, and results will then be sent through the app.
- The worker’s ID and residency permits will then be issued.
The rollout of this Domestic Worker Package is the third phase of the Mohre’s Work Bundle project, which eases the processes for residence visas and employment permits by unifying all services in one platform.
The first phase was rolled out in Dubai in March and later implemented in all seven emirates. The second phase of Work Bundle covered about 600,000 companies and more than seven million workers.
