DUBAI – The government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has cut short the period for documentation related to residency visas and work permits in a major relief for foreigners.
The development comes as the second phase of the Work Bundle platform was launched on Tuesday under which the documentation would be completed in 5 days instead of the existing 30 days.
A collaborative effort involving various government ministries and federal authorities has facilitated the development and rollout of this innovative platform. Aimed at simplifying the recruitment of new employees for businesses and private companies, as well as enabling the pre-renewal of work permits for existing employees, the Work Bundle presents an easy solution for both employees and employers.
Initially introduced in Dubai in March, the first phase of the Work Bundle is now being extended to all seven emirates. As far as the second phase is concerned, it will cover about 600,000 companies and over seven million workers. A third phase is also in process which will cover the domestic workers.
It is to be clarified that multiple procedures have been simplified as part of the second phase launch. For instance, eight work and residency procedures are now reduced into one platform.
The government has designed the Work Bundle to avoid duplication of procedures and the platform simplifies services for onboarding new employees, such as issuing a new work permit, requesting a status adjustment, issuing a visa and employment contract, Emirates ID, residency, and medical examination services.
Moreover, the Work Bundle services also simplify renewing a worker’s employment contract, Emirates ID and residency renewal, Medical examination services and canceling a worker’s employment contract, work permit and residency.
At present, Work Bundle can be accessed through the website; however, a mobile app will also be launched. The platform is handy and efficient as it offers the principle of requesting data only once which means that all basic information about the workers/employees and companies will be asked only once and will be used for all the services; the feature reduces procedures and requirements, and ensuring efficiency in public service delivery and timely disposal of cases.
