Can an Employer Keep an Employee's Passport in the UAE?

Article 13 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations lists the employer's obligations. Item 2 requires the employer not to retain the worker's official documents, and not to force the worker to leave the country when the employment contract ends. A passport is the most important official document a foreign worker holds, so it falls squarely within the rule. Emirates ID cards and other identity papers are covered by the same wording.

The rule is drafted as a duty on the employer, not as a right the worker has to claim. That matters in practice: it does not depend on what the employment contract says. A clause in an offer letter or staff handbook stating that the company will keep passports for safekeeping for the duration of employment does not override Article 13. Article 65 of the same law also treats the rights in the decree-law as a minimum that a contract may improve on but not reduce.

Article 14 adds a separate prohibition on forced labour: an employer may not use any means to compel a worker to work, or to threaten a worker with a penalty to keep working. Holding a passport to stop someone resigning or changing jobs sits uncomfortably close to that line, and is the kind of pressure the provision is aimed at.

An employer does need the passport for a short period. Residence visas are stamped or recorded against the passport, and medical tests, Emirates ID and visa renewals all require it. MoHRE's official guide for arriving guest workers, published on the government portal u.ae, sets out the boundary in plain terms:

• the employer will need your personal identification documents in order to, and for the time required to, obtain your residence permit;
• once the residence permit is issued, the employer must return your personal identification documents to you;
• you are entitled to keep possession of all your personal identification documents once the residence permit is issued.

The same handover logic applies to later transactions such as a visa renewal or cancellation. The company or its PRO may hold the passport while the government step is in progress, then it goes back to the employee. A good HR practice is to record each handover in writing, with the date the passport was taken, the transaction it was needed for, and the date it was returned and signed for by the employee.

If an employee personally asks the company to keep the passport in a safe, our view is that this should be a written, voluntary request that the employee can withdraw at any time, with the document returned the same day on request. The law gives no exception that lets the employer refuse.

Article 60 of the decree-law lists specific offences with fines of AED 100,000 to AED 1,000,000, such as employing a worker without a permit or leaving a recruited worker without work. Retaining documents is not on that list, so the general penalty in Article 63 applies: a fine of not less than AED 5,000 and not more than AED 1,000,000 for anyone who breaches any other provision of the decree-law, its Executive Regulations or the decisions issued under it.

Two further provisions raise the exposure for employers:

• Article 62: fines imposed on employers multiply by the number of workers affected by the violation, up to a maximum of AED 10,000,000. A company holding the passports of an entire workforce is therefore looking at a per-worker fine, not a single one.
• Article 64: repeating a violation within a year of a previous judgment for a similar violation is punishable by imprisonment together with a doubled fine, or either of them.

These are fines imposed by the courts. Our list of labour and WPS fines for 2026 places passport retention alongside the other HR breaches that carry direct penalties.

Article 3 applies the decree-law to all establishments, employers and workers in the private sector in the UAE. It excludes employees of federal and local government entities, members of the armed forces, police and security, and domestic workers. Domestic workers are governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2022 instead; see our note on the domestic worker law.

For free zone companies, the government portal u.ae explains that work permits and residence visas are issued through the free zone authority and that employees are covered by the relevant authority's employment regulations alongside federal labour law, while the financial free zones DIFC and ADGM have their own employment frameworks. If you work in a free zone, check your authority's employment regulations, but do not assume a free zone licence gives an employer a right to hold passports that the federal law denies.

The rule also runs to the end of employment. Article 13(2) bars an employer from forcing a worker to leave the country when the contract ends, and a passport held back at exit is a common way that happens. On cancellation the employee needs the passport to use the post-cancellation grace period, change status or travel.

Most cases are resolved without a formal complaint once the employer is reminded of the rule. A practical sequence:

1. Ask in writing. Email HR or your manager asking for the passport to be returned by a specific date, and refer to Article 13(2) of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021. Keep a copy.
2. Check whether a transaction is pending. If the passport is with the PRO for a visa renewal or Emirates ID, ask for the expected return date. That is the only legitimate reason for the company to have it.
3. Complain to MoHRE. If the passport is not returned, file a complaint through MoHRE's website or app, or call the MoHRE call centre on 600590000. Keep evidence: the written request, any reply, and proof that the employer has the document.
4. Labour dispute route. Under Article 54, MoHRE first tries to settle a labour dispute amicably. It decides claims up to AED 50,000 itself, and either party can take the matter to the court of first instance within 15 working days of its decision. Any other claims, such as unpaid wages or notice pay, can be raised in the same complaint.

For employers, the fix is simple: return all passports, remove any retention clause from contracts and handbooks, and keep a dated log of each temporary handover for visa work.