Hire someone out of another company's probation and their recruitment bill can follow them to you.

The rule, in the words of the law

Article 9(3) of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021: "If the worker wishes to move during the probationary period, to work for another employer in the State, he shall notify the original employer of the same in writing within not less than one month from the date of his wish to terminate the contract. Then, the new employer shall compensate the original employer for the costs of recruitment or contracting with the worker, unless otherwise agreed upon."

Two sentences, two different parties. The first puts a duty on the worker: one month's written notice. The second puts a duty on you: compensation to a company you have never dealt with, for money it spent before you knew the candidate existed. Nothing in the article makes your liability depend on whether the worker gave proper notice, and nothing makes it depend on the worker's own repayment of anything, because the worker cannot lawfully be made to repay it.

Article 9(4) extends the same bill to a second route: a foreign worker who leaves the country during probation and "wishes to return to the State and obtain a new work permit within (3) three months from the date of departure". In that case "the new employer shall pay the compensation stipulated in Clause (3)", this time "unless in case of an agreement between the worker and the original employer to the contrary".

Four ways a probationer reaches you, and what each one costs

Read the second row carefully. In the in-country case, the "otherwise agreed" escape is an agreement between the two employers. In the return-within-three-months case, the wording places it between the worker and their old employer. Our reading: if you are hiring someone who left the UAE a few weeks ago, ask for the written agreement with the previous employer, because an agreement you reach with that employer yourself is not what the clause describes.

The one-year ban in the last row attaches only to leaving the country in breach of the article. A worker who moves between UAE employers without giving the full month of notice owes the original employer compensation equal to the wage for the unserved notice under Article 9(5), but there is no permit ban for that route. Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, Article 11, lets MOHRE lift the ban for workers with skills "in demand", workers whose residence visa is sponsored by their family, Golden Visa holders, and categories the Minister designates.

What "costs of recruitment or contracting" means

The Decree-Law does not define the phrase, and neither does the Implementing Regulation. The nearest official description is MOHRE's own guide for new employers, which tells companies they bear "the costs of recruiting the employee from his/her home country, in addition to the government fees related to the employee's employment with the establishment, as well as insurances, contributions, and guarantees specified by the applicable legislation". That is a description of what an employer must pay, not a schedule of what a new employer must reimburse, but it is the best map of the territory.

Below is our reconstruction of what a previous employer could plausibly put on the invoice. The figures are the ones we have verified elsewhere on this site; the list itself is ours, not MOHRE's.

On the government and insurance lines alone, our hiring-cost guide puts a two-year overseas hire at roughly AED 4,600–6,600. An agency fee can multiply that. Whether the original employer can also claim the time of its HR team, or relocation allowances it chose to pay, is exactly the kind of question the article leaves open, which is why the next section matters more than this table.

What the article does not say

The gaps are where the money is, so here they are in one place. Each of these is our observation on the text, not an official position.

• No ceiling. Compare the non-competition clause. Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, Article 12(5)(a), lets a worker or new employer buy out a non-compete for "compensation not exceeding three months of the worker's wage". Article 9(3) has no equivalent cap. The only limit is what the original employer can show it actually spent.
• No gate at MOHRE. We read MOHRE's service page for the transfer work permit on 29 September 2026. Its conditions are that the candidate holds no active permit, that the application is filed within 90 days of the previous permit's cancellation, and the usual licence, age and occupation checks. It asks for no consent from the previous employer and no proof that recruitment costs were settled. The compensation is therefore a claim between two companies, not a step in the permit process. Your permit can issue while the bill is still unpaid, and the bill does not go away because the permit issued.
• No MOHRE forum. Article 54 gives the Ministry jurisdiction over disputes "between the Employer and the Employee or their beneficiaries". A claim by one employer against another is not in that sentence. Our reading: an original employer that wants to enforce Article 9(3) against you would be in the civil courts, with the ordinary costs and timelines, which is one reason many never pursue it and one reason the ones that do tend to have a large agency invoice in hand. Take legal advice before relying on either point.
• No procedure for "otherwise agreed". The article does not say the agreement must be in writing. Get it in writing anyway. A two-line letter from the original employer waiving or fixing the amount, exchanged before you file, is the whole of your protection.

The one thing you cannot do: pass it to the worker

Article 6(4) of the Decree-Law: "The employer is prohibited from charging the worker for the fees and costs of recruitment and employment or collecting them from him, whether directly or indirectly." That sentence reaches both companies in the story. The original employer could not have made the worker repay the visa and permit when they resigned, and you cannot recover from the worker what you pay the original employer under Article 9(3). A clause in your offer letter that makes the candidate liable for "recruitment costs reimbursed to your previous employer", a deduction from the first salaries, or a "training bond" that is really the same money under another name, all run into "directly or indirectly".

The Executive Regulation lists the deductions an employer may make from wages, and reimbursement of recruitment costs is not among them; our salary calculator sets out what may lawfully leave a payslip. The penalties chapter of the Decree-Law is not gentle with employers who treat permits and fees as a cost centre to be recovered from staff.

What you get in return

Two things make the probation hire cheaper than it looks.

• No non-compete. Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, Article 12(5)(b), exempts the worker from a non-competition clause "if the contract is terminated during the probationary period". A candidate leaving a competitor in month four cannot be held to a two-year restraint, whatever their contract says. The recruitment-cost bill is, in effect, the price of that freedom.
• The notice failure is theirs, not yours. If the worker leaves their probation employer without the full month, Article 9(5) makes the worker liable for the wage for the unserved notice. That is a debt between the worker and the old employer. Nothing in Article 9 transfers it to you, and Article 6(4) means you should not offer to pay it and then recoup it from salary.

Before you file the transfer permit

1. Establish whether they are still on probation. Probation runs for at most six months "from the date of commencement of work" (Art. 9(1)), not from the contract date or the visa date. Ask for the start date. A candidate in month seven is outside Article 9 entirely, and the ordinary notice regime of 30 to 90 days applies instead (notice guide).
2. Establish the route. Still in the country, or left and returning? If they left, on what date, and did they give 14 days' written notice first? The answers decide whether you face Article 9(3), 9(4), nothing, or a one-year ban.
3. Ask for the dated notice. The one-month notice under Article 9(3) is the worker's obligation, but a copy in your file is what shows the contract ended lawfully under Article 42(3), which is what makes the transfer permit route available at all.
4. Contact the original employer before filing, and agree the number in writing. "Unless otherwise agreed upon" is your only lever. Ask what they spent and for the invoices. Offer to settle the government and insurance layer and negotiate the agency fee, or ask for a waiver. Get whatever is agreed on their letterhead or from a company e-mail address.
5. Keep the candidate out of the money. No clause, deduction, bond or side letter that makes the worker carry any part of what you pay (Art. 6(4)).
6. Budget your own fees. The transfer permit costs AED 50 plus AED 250, 1,200 or 3,450 depending on your MOHRE category, and must be filed within 90 days of the previous permit's cancellation. Add the residence layer if you are sponsoring the visa.
7. If the candidate is banned, check Article 11. Skills in demand, a family-sponsored residence visa or a Golden Visa can each ground an exemption request to MOHRE. Without one, the permit will not issue for a year from the departure date, and no agreement with the old employer changes that.