The short answer
Your passport is your personal property. A UAE employer cannot keep it against your will. This has been the settled position for decades and is enforced by MOHRE as a labor-law matter and by the police as a personal-property (and, in serious cases, human-trafficking) matter.
This rule sits outside Federal Decree-Law 33/2021 (which governs the employment relationship) — it comes from the general property rules, from Federal Decree-Law 51 of 2006 concerning Combating Human Trafficking, and from repeated MOHRE administrative circulars. There is no employment contract that can override it.
The visa-processing exception (and its limits)
In practice, employers or their PROs do hold employee passports for short windows during specific immigration transactions:
- Initial residence-visa stamping.
- Medical fitness examination for visa renewal.
- Emirates ID registration or renewal.
Each of these has a defined start and end. The passport should be returned as soon as the transaction completes — typically within a few days to two weeks. Anything beyond that is unlawful retention, regardless of what "policy" the employer cites.
What legitimate policy looks like
Well-run UAE employers manage this by:
- Collecting the passport only when a specific visa transaction is scheduled.
- Providing a written receipt with expected return date.
- Returning the passport to the employee's own hand or a locked-safe collection point after the transaction.
- Storing scans, not physical passports, for HR records.
If your employer instead has your passport in a general HR safe "in case", that's the situation the law is designed to prevent.
How to escalate
- Written request. Email HR asking for the passport back by a specific date (48–72 hours is reasonable). Keep the message — it's your paper trail.
- MOHRE complaint. Via the MOHRE app or 800-84 hotline. Free. MOHRE will contact the employer, and in most cases the passport is returned within days.
- Police report. If the passport was taken under duress, or if MOHRE mediation fails, file a report at the nearest police station. Retention of another person's identity document can be treated as a criminal matter, and in the most serious pattern (multiple workers, coercion, wage withholding combined) it can trigger the Combating Human Trafficking Law.
What about tools like the "no-objection certificate"?
Some employers historically demanded an NOC before releasing the passport at the end of employment. That practice is dead — the 2022 labor-law reforms eliminated the NOC requirement in the mainland private sector for most transitions between employers. The passport must be returned on request regardless of the employment outcome.
Related: end-of-contract personal effects
On termination, the employer must promptly return any personal documents held (passport, educational certificates originals, medical records) alongside the end-of-service payment. See the termination compensation guide for the 14-day payment deadline under Article 53 — the same deadline effectively applies to returning personal property.