Legal Guides for the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt

Plain-language guides to employment, company formation, property and investment law across the Gulf and Egypt.

• UAE notice periods: 30 to 90 days by contract, no service ladder, and the allowance you get even where no damage was caused

  UAE notice is a flat 30 to 90 days fixed by your contract, and it does not grow with length of service. With the pay-in-lieu arithmetic on the last total wage, the paid job-hunting day, and the rule that a notice served during leave does not start running.

• UAE annual leave: 30 days a year, and the one word that changes what your unused balance is worth

  Annual leave in the UAE is not less than 30 days a year, and 2 days a month between six and twelve months of service. The base for cash in lieu differs during employment and on exit, which changes the figure, and the arithmetic is shown both ways.

• Dismissal without notice in the UAE: the ten grounds in Article 44, the written investigation that has to come first, and why 'arbitrary dismissal' is not a claim under this law

  An employer may dismiss without notice only on one of ten grounds in Article 44, and only after a written investigation with a written, reasoned decision handed to the worker. Plus the disciplinary time limits in Cabinet Resolution Article 24 and why arbitrary dismissal does not exist in this law.

• UAE maternity leave: 60 days, 45 at full pay and 15 at half, plus the 45 unpaid days that shrink your gratuity

  UAE maternity leave is 60 days: the first 45 at full wage and the next 15 at half wage. With the arithmetic, the 30 extra days for a sick child, the breastfeeding breaks, the dismissal prohibition, and the trap in Article 30(2) that reduces a later gratuity.

• UAE sick leave: 90 days a year that pay exactly one month, and the clause that lets your employer terminate when they run out

  UAE sick leave is up to 90 days a year: 15 at full pay, 30 at half pay, the rest unpaid. Across a full year that pays exactly one month's wage. With the three-working-day notification, the probation carve-out, and Article 31(5), which permits termination once the leave is exhausted.

• UAE overtime and working hours: 25 per cent by day, 50 per cent at night, and a 144-hour cap that does not reconcile with the 48-hour week

  UAE overtime is the basic wage plus not less than 25 per cent, or plus not less than 50 per cent between 10pm and 4am. Eight hours a day or 48 a week, two hours of overtime a day, and a 144-hour cap over three weeks that a literal reading cannot reconcile with the weekly maximum.

• UAE Golden Visa: the Regulation says 10 years, AED 2 million, and a mortgage is allowed. Four Government pages say otherwise

  The Golden Residence Permit is 10 years, needs AED 2,000,000 of value in property you own, and Abu Dhabi applies that to your equity, and a mortgage from an approved local bank is expressly permitted. With Abu Dhabi's equity arithmetic, the partner tax route the official English translation drops, and the 180 day rule nobody states correctly.

• Ejari: how a Dubai tenancy contract is registered, what it costs, and what the law actually requires

  What Dubai law actually requires to register a tenancy contract, the fee the Land Department publishes, and why the court bar everyone quotes was replaced in 2008.

• Notice periods under Egypt's Labour Law 14/2025: three months, un-shortenable, and the two rules that stop the clock

  Egypt's notice period is three months for both sides under Article 156, and Article 161 makes any agreement to shorten it void. With the pay-in-lieu arithmetic, the two rules that suspend the clock, and the Arabic of every article quoted.

• Annual leave under Egypt's Labour Law 14/2025: 15 days in year one, a tier that turns on your age, and the written refusal that forfeits your pay in lieu

  Annual leave in Egypt is 15 days in the first year, not 21, and Article 124 has four tiers, one of which turns on being over fifty rather than on service. With the pro-rata arithmetic, the rule that a written refusal forfeits pay in lieu, and the Arabic of every article.