Sponsor's consent a must to avoid ban

I AM a bachelor of science in management and I am presently working as a secretary for over a year in one of the companies here in Abu Dhabi. I would like to know if a ban will be imposed on me in case I want to quit or not renew my contract. Can my visa be transferred?

Answer:

In order to have your sponsorship transferred the following conditions should be met:

(1) The employee should have completed one year in service

(2) He should be joining the same profession

(3) He should belong to the exempted categories

(4) He should hold a valid residence visa

(5) The employer must provide consent

-A. S., Abu Dhabi

IF YOUR contract is of an unlimited period, you can have it terminated by way of giving a notice to the employer. If it is of limited period, you can serve a notice on the employer at least one month prior to the date of its expiry expressing your intention not to renew the contract.

Upon cancellation, you can produce an authenticated proof of your educational qualifications to the Naturalisation and Residency Department to avoid the ban stamp.

Visa renewal

I HOLD a valid UAE Residence Visa and have been working with my company for the last six years. My daughter is on my sponsorship. My visa expired by the end of January. I plan to leave my company and join somewhere else. My company has my passport with them as a normal practice.

Can they cancel my visa even if my daughter is on my sponsorship?

-A. D., Dubai

Answer:

IF THE residence visa expires under a contract of a limited period while you are still in service and did not receive any notification from the company for its intention not to renew them, the company is obliged to renew them. In case you work under an unlimited contract, and the company is not willing to renew your visa upon its expiry or wishing to terminate your service, the company must notify you.

In case of cancellation, a certain form must be signed to the effect that you have received all your labour dues including the end-of-service benefits (gratuity). Upon cancelling your visa, the residence visas of all the persons sponsored by you must be cancelled.

Drug usage

IF a person consuming a drug (medicine) containing narcotic substances is caught while taking this medicine, can he be released if he produces a certified medical prescription? Would the situation be different if the consumption of the drug takes place outside the UAE under a medical prescription issued abroad?

-Mrs. D. W., Dubai

Answer:

IN BRIEF, the answer is yes. According to the UAE Anti-Narcotics Code, in the cases where the accused is consuming the drug for medical treatment purposes, however, certain assurances should be offered to ensure the genuineness of the fact, namely:

(1) Pursuant to the said law, and in order for the prescription to be valid, it should be issued by one of the physicians (doctors) duly licensed and practising in the UAE in the relevant specialisation. The prescription should be issued on the format prepared for this particular purpose, as per the provisions of Article 24 of the code.

(2) In case the consumption of the drug takes place outside the UAE, whether or not with a valid prescription, the jurisdiction to determine this matter does not rest with the UAE courts, even if the accused held valid evidence for his contentions.

Release of passport

UPON joining the new employment, the employer required me to hand over my passport to the company until the time I go on annual leave or my service comes to an end. The company took the passport and gave me a receipt to this effect. After a period of time, my service was terminated, yet the company refrained from returning my passport. I am at a total loss and do not know what to do now. Please advise.

-M. Aydabi, Dubai

Answer:

TO BEGIN with, you can initiate court proceedings, namely a civil claim, for the recovery of your passport together with your labour dues, in case the company has not paid them. It should be noted that in a very recent judgment handed down by Dubai Supreme Court, the following legal principle has been established: "The refrainment by the employer to hand over the employee's passport to him/her after the termination of his/her service with the intent to cause harm to him/her shall be treated as a breach of trust."

The above legal principle sees that the handing over of moneys under any of the trust contracts is a condition precedent to the 'breach of trust' crime. Consideration is given to the actual fact wherein the violation is linked to the obligation imposed upon him under the 'trust contract,' namely to maintain in good condition the property held in trust until returned to the bailor (depositor) without any harm caused.

And whereas the employer has taken the passport on 'bailment' or 'trust' basis to be kept in a safe place until returned upon the termination of the service or on leaves, and whereas the employer refrained in mala-fides (ill-will) to return your passport, which matter caused you grave harm, therefore the criminal intent is present and the elements of the 'breach of trust' crime do exist as per the law.

-Compiled by Mustafa Barakat

LEGAL TERMINOLOGY BY MUSTAFA BARAKAT

IF YOU are lost in the sea of legal jargon, we will here lend you a hand. Do you need to know the meaning of some equally puzzling legal terms? Here you will find definitions of legal terms, from the common to the bizarre, in simple English.

Without Prejudice: A final and binding decision by a judge about a legal matter that prevents further pursuit of the same matter in any court. When a judge makes such a decision, he dismisses the matter 'with prejudice.'

It is also a term used so as to attempt to protect the writer of a document against the construing of its contents as an admission of liability and means, in effect, 'without prejudice to rights of writer of the statement.' Negotiations with a view to a settlement are usually conducted 'without prejudice' which means the circumstances in which the content of these negotiations may be revealed to the court are very restricted.

Without reserve: A phrase used in sale by auction, showing that no price has been reserved.

Poison pill: A strategy for avoiding a hostile takeover. A company offers low-price stock to its current shareholders in order to make it more expensive for another company to buy them out.

Plea: The defendant's formal answer to criminal charges. Typically defendants enter one of the following pleas: guilty, not guilty or nolo contendere. A plea is usually entered when charges are formally brought (at arraignment).

Plea bargain: A negotiation between the defence and prosecution (and sometimes the judge) that settles a criminal case. The defendant typically pleads guilty to a lesser crime (or fewer charges) than originally charged, in exchange for a guaranteed sentence that is shorter than what the defendant could face if convicted at trial.

The prosecution gets the certainty of a conviction and a known sentence; the defendant avoids the risk of a higher sentence; and the judge gets to move on to other cases.

Nolo contendere: A plea entered by the defendant in response to being charged with a crime. If a defendant pleads nolo contendere, she neither admits nor denies that she committed the crime, but agrees to a punishment (usually a fine or jail time) as if guilty. Usually, this type of plea is entered because it cannot be used as an admission of guilt if a civil case is held after the criminal trial.

Prayer for relief: What the plaintiff asks of the court -- for example, the plaintiff may ask for an award of monetary damages, an injunction to make the defendant stop a certain activity, or both.

Prima Facie: Latin for 'on its face.' A prima facie case is one that at first glance presents sufficient evidence for the plaintiff to win. Such a case must be refuted in some way by the defendant for him to have a chance of prevailing at trial.

For example, if you can show that someone intentionally touched you in a harmful or offensive way and caused some injury to you, you have established a prima facie case of battery. However, this does not mean that you automatically win your case. The defendant would win if he could show that you consented to the harmful or offensive touching.

Battery: A crime consisting of physical contact that is intended to harm someone. Unintentional harmful contact is not battery, no matter how careless the behaviour or how severe the injury.

A fistfight is a common battery; being hit by a wild pitch in a cricket or baseball game is not. It is a crime and a tort, involving infliction of unlawful personal violence. It includes even the slightest force; no actual harm needs to result; it is actionable per se. In common usage 'assault' is often a synonym of battery; in law they are distinct.

Per se: By itself; taken on its own.

Constitution: (1) The manner in which a state or other body is organised. (2) The body of fundamental doctrines and rules of a nation from which stem the duties and powers of the government and the duties and rights of the people. For example, the UK Constitution is based on statute, common law and convention.

Construction: (1) The process of construing (i.e. discovering and applying the meaning of) written instruments. In other words it means interpretation of the contents thereof, e.g. by resolving ambiguities and other uncertainties. It is often used synonymously with 'interpretation.'

Dynamite charge: A judge's admonition to a deadlocked jury (or hung jury) to go back to the jury room and try harder to reach a verdict. The judge might remind the jurors to respectfully consider the opinions of others and will often assure them that if the case has to be tried again, another jury will not necessarily do a better job than they are doing.

Because of its coercive nature, some states prohibit the use of a dynamite charge as a violation of their state constitution, but the practice passed Federal constitutional muster in the case of Allen v. Gainer. The instruction is also known as a dynamite instruction, shotgun instruction, Allen charge or third degree instruction.

Hung jury: A jury unable to come to a final decision, resulting in a mistrial. Judges do their best to avoid hung juries, typically sending juries back into deliberations with an assurance (sometimes known as a "dynamite charge") that they will be able to reach a decision if they try harder.

If a mistrial is declared, the case is tried again unless the parties settle the case (in a civil case) or the prosecution dismisses the charges or offers a plea bargain (in a criminal case).

It must be noted here that the jury system is not applicable in the UAE and civil-code based countries as trials are conducted before and evidence examined by the judge who hands down the judgment.