Is Your UAE Job Offer or Visa Real? How to Verify It Before You Travel

Dubai Police reported a rise of over a quarter in visa-fraud cases in the final quarter of 2025 alone, with individual losses ranging from roughly AED 1,500 to AED 25,000, and GDRFA has separately warned about fake companies advertising visas and jobs on social media. The good news is that every genuine UAE job offer and every genuine visa or entry permit can be independently verified through free official channels before you pay anyone or book a flight.

Start with the job offer itself. A legitimate UAE employer issues a formal offer letter through MOHRE, and you can confirm the offer's reference number directly with the ministry rather than taking a recruiter's word for it. Separately, search the employer's name on the UAE National Economic Register to confirm they hold an active trade licence; a company that cannot be found there, or whose licence has lapsed, is not in a position to legally sponsor anyone. If a visa or entry permit has already been issued, verify it directly: use GDRFA's Dubai portal for visas issued in Dubai, or the ICP eChannels file-validity check for any of the other six emirates. A permit number that returns no result on either platform is not a technical glitch, it means the document is not genuine.

A handful of patterns show up in almost every UAE visa scam: a request for any upfront payment described as a visa or processing fee, since UAE law makes the employer responsible for all recruitment and visa costs and expressly forbids passing them to the employee; unsolicited contact from a personal WhatsApp number or generic email address rather than a company domain; a job with no interview and an unrealistically high salary; and, most tellingly, any offer of a "visit visa with work permission." That combination does not exist under UAE law, since working legally always requires a proper employment visa, and any agent proposing it is describing a scam, not a shortcut.

If a check comes back unverifiable, or if a recruiter pushes back against you verifying independently, treat that resistance itself as the clearest signal to stop. None of the checks above cost anything or take more than a few minutes, and running them before you sign anything or send any money is the single most effective protection available.