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Dh25,000 salary needed to hire maid in UAE? Not exactly

Dubai - There is a way around for those who don't earn Dh25,000 a month.

If you're looking at sponsoring a full-time maid in Dubai, then weigh up your options as the UAE has introduced a new policy for domestic help sponsorship. As per the new policy that was introduced some months ago, a sponsor must earn a minimum of Dh25,000 in order to have the maid on his visa. Previously, an expatriate holding a residence visa in the UAE could obtain a visa for a domestic worker if he had a salary not less than Dh6,000 per month or a monthly salary of Dh5,000 with accommodation.

However, this does not mean that those who do not earn Dh25,000 cannot hire full-time maids. Tadbeer centres that have been set up across the country to make sure that people only use legitimate channels to hire help have worked around various packages for citizens and residents, irrespective of their salaries and bank balance.

The centres offer a variety pf packages for hiring a domestic help and have tied up with professional agencies to make it a seamless process that lets you even select a maid from the centres, whom you can interview and take home then and there.

Explaining the steps, a representative at one of the Tadbeer centres in Dubai said: "All you have to do is select the nationality of the maid (mainly African, Indian and Indonesian), interview them and go home with one, without any paper work. All you need is your valid Emirates ID and IBAN number. You will need to sign an agreement. We will take care of the salary, visa, insurance, travel fees, medical and Emirates ID of the housemaid. All you have to take care of is the food and basic necessities. If you are not happy with the housemaid, you can come anytime and replace the housemaid - unlimited free replacement of the maid of the same nationality. It is monthly contract and can be cancelled any time."

Under this category, you need to pay Dh3,500 monthly for the first five months, if you continue with the same maid, the cost for African maids come down to Dh2,420 from six month onward, while for Indian maid Dh2,800.

In the second category, the sponsor can bring to the centre a maid of their choice from any country, The centre will run a check on the nationality restriction of the maid and if cleared from immigration then it can sponsor the maid for you. "Under this package where you get your choice of maid, we can sponsor her on your behalf and charge Dh3,150 monthly in the first two months, and from the third month onwards you will pay Dh1,000 as the maid's salary and Dh620 to us as her visa fee, which makes it a total of Dh1,620. We will put Dh1,000 in her bank account as that is the minimum requirement for a maid. If you want to give her more then you are free to give that to her in cash. This cycle is repeated in the same order every year."

It is only in the third package of private sponsorship where the sponsor has to show a salary certificate of Dh25,000, along with his marriage certificate, his spouse visa (as bachelors cannot hire a maid), work contract, title deed of the house and Dewa bill.

Explaining the private sponsorship, the Tadbeer centre representative told Khaleej Times that the first step would be to get the maid's entry permit done for Dh3,403 at the centre, which can be done after submitting the aforementioned documents along with the maid's passport and sponsor's passport, visa and Emirates ID. "The second step is changing her status after issuance of visa, and the last step is the residency visa which will cost Dh5,522. Every step takes two working days for the approval. This is the process of getting a yearly visa of the maid with you as a sponsor," she added.

saman@khaleejtimes.com