How to verify Your UAE visa Validity

The UAE Government offers online and offline facilities to check your resident visa validity and track your visa application with very simple steps. Generally, the validity of visa is two years. Visa is renewed subject to conditions similar to those of fresh visas.

How to verify your resident visa validity online:

Just visit https://echannels.moi.gov.ae/echannels/web/client/default.html#/fileValidity

Add your resident visa Unified number or passport number and click.

Then you will get your visa validity

Reclaim tax paid before VAT registration in UAE

Article 56 of the Decree Law allows the recovery of input tax paid on goods, services and imported goods prior to the date of VAT registration, “provided that these goods and services were used to make supplies that give the right to input tax recovery upon tax registration”.

Input VAT is the VAT charged by your suppliers on goods and services purchased. This means you can only recover VAT paid before registration if VAT charged on the same goods and services post registration would be recoverable. You should understand the exclusions to input tax recovery contained in the full decree law and executive regulations and apply the same rules that apply to input VAT recovery generally when determining how much pre-registration input VAT can be offset.

There are four exceptions to this rule listed in the decree law.

• The first is receipt of goods and services for purposes other than making taxable supplies.
• The second is for input tax related to capital assets that are already partially depreciated before the date of registration, for example, if you purchase a fixed asset with an expected life of five years and when you register for VAT the asset has only two years of use left, you can only reclaim two fifths of the VAT you originally paid.
•  The third exception is for services received more than five years prior to the date of registration.
• Cant reclaim input tax paid if you have moved goods to another implementing GCC state prior to the registration in that state. This is because if you supply goods to another GCC state then the recovery of input tax is permitted only in that other state. Therefore, to recover input VAT you need to be registered in that other GCC state.

Number plate upgrade mandatory in Dubai from July 2018

Following the introduction of a new number plate design last year, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has now kicked off a campaign urging all motorists to upgrade to the new plates, ahead of mandatory upgrades from July for select codes.

The upgrade is currently available for all types of distinguished and special number plates across all codes, and from May it will also be available optionally for unowned (allotted randomly through vehicle registration) plates.

According to RTA, over the next couple of years, all categories of vehicle number plates will have to be replaced. As the RTA presses ahead with its new plates regime, unowned car plates with codes A, B and C will be among the first to be up for mandatory replacement from July.

The new number plate design that includes either a black and white or colour Dubai logo, depending on the amount you pay, was launched last year after the introduction of double codes necessitated a redesign.

“The RTA has developed a new strategy for number plates resulting in a new generation of number plates with double codes. This has accordingly resulted in the whole design for the number plates to be changed to adopt the single and double codes with the same design language,” said Sultan Al Marzouqi, director of RTA’s Vehicle Licensing.

The double codes are being introduced as the RTA is running out of single codes, as the number of vehicles continues to rise at an alarming rate in Dubai.

Replacement in 2 years

According to RTA, over the next couple of years, all categories of vehicle number plates — whether purchased online, bought in an auction or allotted through the vehicle registration process — will have to be replaced in phases.

In the next phase, beginning January next year, plates with codes D, E, F, G, H and I will have to be replaced, while in January 2020 replacement for codes J, K, L, M, N and O will start and following that in January 2021, it will be the turn of all unowned plates with codes P to Z as well as other types of plates.

Depending on the size of the plates and colour of the logo, the prices of the plates vary.

A regular short number plate with a black and white logo will cost Dh35, while a long number plate in the same category will cost Dh50.

For those who already own number plates with the colour logo of Dubai, the replacement for the long and short plates will cost Dh35 and Dh50, respectively, while those who want to buy a new plate with coloured Dubai logo will have to pay Dh400 irrespective of the plate’s size.

As for the distinguished or special number plates, the replacement will cost Dh500, with the process to be completed mandatorily by the end of this year.

Al Marzouqi said motorists with owned number plates willing to get the plates replaced can either proceed immediately to any of the RTA-affiliated vehicle testing and registration centres or get it replaced at the time of their scheduled renewal, while those with unowned number plates can wait till May to do the same

Good conduct Certificate must for workers Change jobs in the UAE

Good conduct Certificate in the UAE

Security checks are now covering all new work permits, including workers switching jobs in the UAE, official sources told. According to a source, it is now mandatory for workers planning to change jobs in the UAE to produce a certificate of good conduct, regardless of the length of their service.

From June 1, the good conduct certificate will be mandatory for all domestic workers, revoking the exemption currently in force for Filipino and Indonesian workers, according to the source.

“Expatriate workers planning to switch jobs will now have to produce certificates of good conduct from the local police,” an official source told. The source said now candidates applying for their first job in the UAE and those planning to change jobs will have to produce certificates of good conduct.

“For candidates applying for their first job in the UAE, the security screening of job candidates means that they will have to produce good conduct certificates from their home countries, or the country, or countries, of their residence for work, or study, for the past five years, while those who wish to change jobs can obtain the good conduct certificate from local police,” the source said.

Security Vetting:  The source affirmed the security vetting is a mean of judging a job candidate’s past mistakes, character, and fitness, and to identify potential hiring risks for safety and security reasons and to ensure the safety and security of the employees as well as their public and private employers.

If the applicant for a first job in the UAE has lived and worked in more than one country in the past five years, a certificate of good conduct from each country must be produced.

The source said residents born and lived in the UAE until they apply for a job will now also be required to present a good conduct certificate, which they can obtain from the local police.

The source said, for now, workers who apply for renewal of work permit are not required to produce a certificate of good conduct.

However, the source said, those born and lived in the UAE for a while but left for home or another country before applying for a job, must produce a good conduct certificate from their home country or the country of their residence for work, or study, for the past five years.

The good conduct certificates must be certified by the UAE’s missions abroad or attested at customer happiness centres of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

The security screening is only mandatory for job candidates but not for their dependents or family members.

The certificate is not required for tourists, students and people who come to the UAE on medical or mission visas, issued for the purpose of temporary work in the country for three months and can be renewed for a similar period.

The good conduct certificate will be produced on applying for a job visa, issued by residency departments to foreigners who wish to work for a company in the UAE upon the approval of the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.

The visa allows the holders to enter the UAE once and is valid for two months from the date of issue. When the employee has entered the country on the basis of the job visa, the sponsoring company will arrange to complete the formalities of medical and stamping his residence within 60 days.