How do you check a Gulf job offer is real?
Verify it against the regulator, not against the paperwork. A genuine UAE offer exists in the MOHRE system and you can check it yourself, free, using the transaction number and company number printed on it. If an offer cannot be found there, treat everything else about it as unproven.
How do you verify a UAE offer yourself?
You do not need us for this and it costs nothing. A genuine UAE job offer uses a MOHRE-approved contract form carrying a unique serial number or barcode, and the corresponding record sits in the ministry's own system.
- Step 01
Find the transaction number and company number
Both appear on a genuine MOHRE offer letter. If the document you have been sent carries neither, that is the first thing to ask about, and a reluctance to answer tells you most of what you need to know.
- Step 02
Check it at MOHRE
Go to the MOHRE website and follow Services, then Employee Services, then the Transactions Inquiry Service, then Enquiry for Job Offer. Enter the transaction number and the company number. Type the address into your browser yourself rather than following a link someone sent you.
- Step 03
Check the offer is complete
A MOHRE offer states the job title, the company number, the contract type, the salary, the start date, the weekly leave entitlement and the notice period. Vagueness in any of these is not an oversight, it is usually the point.
- Step 04
Check the company exists, separately
Look up the trade licence on the registry for the relevant emirate. Then find the company independently: its own website, its registered domain, its staff. Confirm the recruiter contacting you actually works there, using contact details you found yourself.
What is different about a Saudi offer?
In Saudi Arabia the fraud risk is joined by a compliance risk that has nothing to do with fraud, and the second one catches people who checked carefully for the first.
A Saudi employment contract must be documented electronically on Qiwa. Beyond that, an employer sits in a Nitaqat band that reflects how well it meets its localisation obligations. An employer in a Red band faces blocked work permits and blocked iqama renewals. That can put your own status at risk even when the offer in front of you is completely genuine and the employer is completely real.
You should also check whether the role you have been offered sits on a restricted or fully localised profession list, because if it does, the work permit cannot be issued at all. Ask the employer these questions in writing, and read the answers carefully. An employer with nothing to hide will answer them.
Which red flags actually matter?
Some warning signs are decisive on their own. Others only matter in combination. These are the ones worth acting on.
Stop immediately
- Any request for a recruitment, placement, visa or processing fee
- A request to pay regulator or verification fees through an intermediary
- A request for payment in cryptocurrency, gift cards or to a personal account
- An offer for a job you never applied for, from a recruiter you never contacted
- Pressure to decide within hours, or a deadline that keeps moving closer
Verify before going further
- Company correspondence from a free email domain, or from a domain that is almost but not exactly the employer's real one
- An offer with no transaction number, company number or contract type
- A salary well above the market rate for the role and your experience
- A recruiter who will not do a video call, or whose name does not appear anywhere
- An interview conducted entirely over a messaging app
- A registered address that does not match the trade licence
What if you would rather someone else checked?
Everything above is something you can do yourself, and we would rather you did. If you want the full set of checks run and written up, that is a service we offer: registry checks, offer completeness against the required fields, corporate existence and digital footprint, red flag review, and for Saudi roles, Nitaqat band exposure where it can be determined.
Read more about offer and employer verification, or send us the offer and ask. If we look at it and think you do not need a paid report, we will tell you that.
What else should you know about offer fraud?
Is it normal to pay a recruitment agency to find me a job in the Gulf?
No. A legitimate employer pays the cost of hiring you. In the UAE, charging a candidate recruitment fees is prohibited. If someone is asking you for a placement fee, a security deposit or a refundable guarantee, that is the end of the conversation, not the start of a negotiation.
The offer letter has a company stamp and looks official. Is that enough?
No. Stamps, letterheads and logos are trivial to copy, and convincing forgeries are routine in this market. What cannot be forged is the record held by the regulator. A genuine UAE offer exists in the MOHRE system and can be checked there using its transaction number and company number.
They asked me to pay the DataFlow and licensing fees through them. Is that normal?
No, and it is the single most common way money disappears. Regulator, verification and examination fees are paid by you, directly to the authority, in your own name. When you pay the authority yourself you get a receipt in your name and a record you can trace. When you pay an intermediary you get neither.
What if the employer is real but the recruiter is not?
This is common and it is why the company existing is not sufficient proof. Fraudsters impersonate real hospitals and real contractors, often using an email address on a free domain or a lookalike domain. Contact the employer through the phone number and address on its own website, never through the contact details on the offer.
I have already paid. What should I do?
Stop sending money, keep every message, receipt and bank reference, and report it. In the UAE, report to Dubai Police through their e-crime channel or to the police in the relevant emirate, and notify MOHRE. Tell your bank immediately: a recent transfer can sometimes be recalled. Then warn other candidates, because these operations work at scale.
Can you tell me whether my offer is genuine?
We can tell you what we were able to verify from official sources and what we were not. We will never tell you an offer is safe or an employer is legitimate, because no outside party can responsibly certify that. The decision stays yours, taken on better information.