Hiring a Maid in Dubai 2026: Tadbeer Package Cost by Nationality (Filipino, Indian, Ethiopian, Sri Lankan, Kenyan)

Hiring a domestic worker through a MOHRE-licensed Tadbeer centre in Dubai in {year} costs between AED 10,000 and AED 30,000 for a full two-year package, with the spread driven almost entirely by the worker's nationality. The cheapest stable corridors right now are Ethiopian and Kenyan placements; the most expensive is a fluent-English Filipina with childcare experience. The package itself is structurally the same regardless of source country - residence visa, medical, Emirates ID, one year of health insurance, MOHRE contract registration, Tadbeer service margin - but the source-country salary floor and the embassy paperwork on the worker side change the all-in number significantly.

The household-side sponsor rule has not moved: you need a minimum monthly income of AED 25,000 (sponsor or combined spouse income) to put a domestic worker on your own residence file, or you take the Tadbeer third-party-sponsorship route where the centre is the legal sponsor and the AED 25,000 rule is waived. The cleanest place to start the chain in Dubai is Tadbeer Al Quoz.

Nationality	2-yr Tadbeer package (AED)	Minimum monthly salary (AED)	Source-country floor	Recruitment timeline
Filipina (English, childcare)	22,000-30,000	2,500	DMW (ex-POEA) USD 400 / ~AED 1,470	5-8 weeks
Filipina (standard housekeeper)	18,000-22,000	2,000-2,500	DMW USD 400 floor	4-7 weeks
Indian	14,000-18,000	1,500-2,250	MEA eMigrate AED 1,500	4-6 weeks
Sri Lankan	13,000-16,000	1,500-2,300	SLBFE LKR 60,000 floor	4-6 weeks
Ethiopian	10,000-14,000	1,200-1,500	Post-2019 bilateral MOU	3-5 weeks
Kenyan	11,000-15,000	1,300-1,600	NEA pre-departure clearance	4-6 weeks

Sources: MOHRE.gov.ae centre-fee schedules, Department of Migrant Workers (Philippines) wage circulars, Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment standard contract, Khaleej Times reporting on the Filipina minimum-salary floor, and Tadbeer-network rate cards aggregated April {year}. The rest of this guide explains where the gaps come from.

Before comparing nationalities it helps to know what the headline figure is paying for. A Tadbeer package in Dubai bundles seven things, and the same line items apply whether you are hiring an Ethiopian housekeeper or a Filipina nanny. The salary you pay the worker each month is separate from the package and is on top.

1. Residence visa stamping - paid to GDRFA Dubai or ICP, roughly AED 5,000 for a 2-year domestic worker visa including entry permit, status change, and stamping.
2. Medical fitness test - DHA-approved screening for the worker on arrival, ~AED 350.
3. Emirates ID - 2-year card issuance through EIDA, ~AED 370.
4. Health insurance - one year of mandatory cover under the Dubai Health Insurance Law, AED 1,500-3,500 depending on plan tier.
5. MOHRE contract registration - the bilingual domestic worker contract logged on the MOHRE module, with the 2-year guarantee attached.
6. Tadbeer service margin and recruitment fee - the centre's own revenue, plus the source-country agency fee. This is where most of the nationality-driven spread lives.
7. Pre-departure training - a 100-200 hour orientation in the source country, mandatory for Filipina helpers under DMW rules and increasingly standard for Ethiopian and Kenyan corridors under bilateral MOUs.

The 2-year guarantee is the same across nationalities: if the placement fails within 24 months, the centre owes you either a replacement worker or a pro-rata refund within 14 days of cancellation approval. We unpacked that in detail in our Tadbeer cancellation and refund guide; the maths there applies regardless of which nationality you hired.

The government-fee block (visa, medical, Emirates ID) is roughly AED 5,700 and barely moves between corridors. What does move is the centre margin and the source-country agency fee, which together make up AED 4,000-24,000 of the headline package. That is the spread you are paying for when you pick a nationality.

Filipina domestic workers are the most expensive corridor in Dubai, and there are real structural reasons - not just demand. The Philippine government runs the most regulated outbound-helper system in the region, and every Filipina coming to the UAE is processed through the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), which absorbed the older POEA in 2022. DMW requires a verified employment contract attested at the Philippine Overseas Labour Office (POLO/MWO) in Dubai before deployment, a sealed bilateral agreement between the worker and sponsor, and a USD 400 monthly minimum salary - roughly AED 1,470 - that the centre will enforce in writing.

In practice, market rates run well above the floor. The standard Dubai range for a competent Filipina housekeeper is AED 2,000-2,500/month, and English-fluent helpers with childcare or elderly-care experience command AED 2,500-3,500/month. The Khaleej Times reported the AED 2,500 floor as the de facto market minimum for live-in Filipinas when the bilateral framework was tightened, and it has stuck.

Filipina tier	2-yr package (AED)	Monthly salary (AED)	Total 2-year cost to sponsor (AED)
Standard housekeeper	18,000-22,000	2,000-2,200	~66,000-74,800
English-speaking nanny	22,000-26,000	2,500-2,800	~82,000-93,200
Childcare/elderly-care experienced	26,000-30,000	2,800-3,500	~93,200-114,000

The DMW process is also slower. Counting the contract attestation in Manila, pre-departure orientation seminar, and the bilateral verification, the average end-to-end timeline for a Filipina hire is 5 to 8 weeks versus 3 to 5 weeks for an Ethiopian corridor. If your household needs help immediately, this is something to factor in. Tadbeer Al Quoz runs Filipina recruitment in volume and can usually quote you a precise lead time at intake.

Indian domestic workers are the second-largest corridor into Dubai and one of the more bureaucratically clean. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs runs the eMigrate system, which requires every worker on an Emigration Check Required (ECR) passport to have her employment contract verified through the system before departure. The minimum salary floor MEA enforces for UAE-bound domestic workers is roughly AED 1,500/month, paid through WPS-DW, but actual market rates for Indian helpers in Dubai sit at AED 1,500-2,250/month with experienced cooks and nannies at the top of that range.

The Tadbeer package for an Indian helper in {year} ranges AED 14,000-18,000 for the standard 2-year contract. The price gap with the Filipina corridor reflects lower source-country agency fees and a shorter pre-departure training requirement. Indian helpers from the southern states (Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka) tend to be priced slightly higher because of language flexibility - Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, and often serviceable English.

Indian helper profile	2-yr package (AED)	Monthly salary (AED)	Notes
North Indian housekeeper	14,000-16,000	1,500-1,800	Hindi-speaking, basic English
South Indian cook/housekeeper	15,000-17,000	1,800-2,200	Often bilingual
Experienced nanny (any region)	16,000-18,000	2,000-2,250	Pre-school or childcare background

The recurring pitfall on the Indian corridor is an expired ECR or a passport flagged in eMigrate from a prior emigration check. The centre will usually catch this at intake, but if you are sourcing through a smaller agency, ask explicitly. An ECR-flagged worker cannot leave India for the UAE without going back through MEA clearance, which adds 4-8 weeks.

The Ethiopian corridor has the most volatile history of any UAE domestic worker pipeline, and it pays to know the timeline because it still shapes pricing and availability. Ethiopia banned outbound domestic worker travel to the UAE and the wider Gulf in 2012 after a sequence of abuse cases that surfaced internationally. The ban held for several years, was negotiated down to a partial lift through 2017-2018, and was formally replaced by a bilateral MOU between Ethiopia and the UAE in 2019 that re-opened legal recruitment under tighter pre-departure training, contract standards, and a recruitment-fee ban on the worker side.

In {year}, the corridor is fully open and one of the cheapest Tadbeer packages in Dubai. The standard 2-year package runs AED 10,000-14,000 with monthly salaries at AED 1,200-1,500. Ethiopian helpers are typically engaged for housekeeping rather than childcare, and Amharic is the working language with English usually limited.

Ethiopian helper profile	2-yr package (AED)	Monthly salary (AED)	Notes
Basic housekeeper	10,000-12,000	1,200-1,400	Amharic only; pre-departure training certified
Experienced housekeeper	12,000-14,000	1,400-1,500	2nd or 3rd contract; some English

Two things to know on this corridor specifically. First, the {year} regulations under the bilateral MOU prohibit charging the worker any recruitment fee or holding her passport - both are now hard-coded into the MOHRE module and a violation surfaces during any cancellation. Second, the Ethiopian government still requires every outbound worker to complete a certified pre-departure training programme through an approved provider in Addis Ababa, which adds 2-4 weeks to the timeline. The Tadbeer centre will manage this through its Addis source-country agency partner, but expect the lead time to be 3-5 weeks end-to-end.

The Sri Lankan corridor is the quiet workhorse of UAE domestic worker recruitment. The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) registers and clears every outbound domestic worker, runs the pre-departure training, and enforces a standardised contract template that the Tadbeer centre in Dubai countersigns. SLBFE's minimum salary for UAE-bound housekeepers is set in LKR, but the converted AED equivalent works out to roughly AED 1,500; market rates in Dubai sit at AED 1,500-2,300/month.

The {year} Tadbeer package for a Sri Lankan helper runs AED 13,000-16,000, sitting between the Ethiopian and Indian corridors. Sri Lankan helpers are generally engaged for both housekeeping and childcare, and English fluency is more common than on the Ethiopian or Indian corridors because of Sri Lanka's broader English-medium education base.

Sri Lankan helper profile	2-yr package (AED)	Monthly salary (AED)	Notes
Basic housekeeper	13,000-14,000	1,500-1,800	SLBFE pre-departure certified
Housekeeper with childcare	14,000-15,500	1,800-2,100	Often functional English
Experienced nanny	15,500-16,000	2,000-2,300	Repeat contracts in GCC common

The Sri Lankan corridor's strength is contract stability. SLBFE keeps a registered file on every outbound worker, and the standard contract has clearer dispute-resolution clauses than several other corridors. The downside is that lead times have been slowly stretching - 4-6 weeks is the current realistic window, up from 3-4 weeks a few years ago, because of stricter SLBFE pre-departure verification.

Kenya is the newest of the major UAE domestic worker corridors and is still finding its pricing equilibrium. The Kenyan National Employment Authority (NEA) requires every outbound worker to obtain a clearance certificate and complete a pre-departure orientation programme, and the bilateral framework with the UAE was formalised in stages between 2017 and 2022. Recruitment volumes have grown sharply in the past three years, partly absorbing demand that previously went to Uganda and partly serving households looking for English-language helpers at a lower price point than the Filipina corridor.

The {year} Tadbeer package for a Kenyan helper runs AED 11,000-15,000, with monthly salaries at AED 1,300-1,600. English fluency is the structural advantage of this corridor - Kenya's national education system runs in English, and most outbound workers arrive with comfortable conversational English, sometimes stronger than what you would get on the Filipina standard tier.

Kenyan helper profile	2-yr package (AED)	Monthly salary (AED)	Notes
Basic housekeeper	11,000-13,000	1,300-1,400	English-speaking; NEA cleared
Housekeeper with childcare	13,000-14,500	1,500-1,600	Repeat-contract candidates available
Experienced nanny	14,000-15,000	1,500-1,600	Premium English tier

The corridor is newer, which means agency depth varies. Stick to Tadbeer centres with established Nairobi source-country partners - Tadbeer Al Barsha and Tadbeer Al Quoz both have direct relationships - rather than smaller centres reselling through intermediaries. The intermediary chain is where most pricing surprises and timeline slippage come from on this corridor.

The household-side rule has not moved in {year}. To sponsor a domestic worker on your own residence file (not through Tadbeer third-party sponsorship), you need to demonstrate a minimum monthly income of AED 25,000 - either your own salary, your spouse's salary, or a combined household income. MOHRE checks this against your salary certificate or trade licence at the visa stage. The AED 25,000 floor applies whether this is your first domestic worker or your fifth; there is no separate higher threshold for a second or third helper, despite a persistent rumour to that effect.

What does change with multiple helpers is the household-needs justification. A two-adult household sponsoring a third domestic worker will be asked at MOHRE intake to demonstrate the practical need - young children, elderly relatives, a large villa, or special-needs care. The needs case is informal but real, and being able to document it at intake speeds the approval.

Sponsor scenario	Income requirement	Route
Standard sponsor, AED 25,000+ salary	Met	Direct sponsorship; helper on sponsor's file
Sponsor below AED 25,000 (combined household)	Not met	Tadbeer third-party sponsorship; helper on centre's file
Golden Visa holder	Waived	Solvency-based; Cabinet Decision 65/2022
Sponsoring 3rd+ helper	AED 25,000 still applies; needs case at intake	Direct, but document the household need

The Tadbeer third-party sponsorship route is the safety valve for households below the threshold. The centre is the legal sponsor, you contract with the centre on a monthly basis, and the AED 25,000 rule does not apply. The monthly cost is higher than self-sponsoring (typically AED 3,500-5,500/month all-in depending on nationality) but the entry friction is much lower. Walk in to Tadbeer Al Quoz and ask for the third-party-sponsorship rate sheet if your salary is below the floor.

End-to-end timelines from contract signing to the worker walking into your home vary by corridor. Here is the realistic spread for clean cases in {year}, with the bottleneck step flagged for each.

Corridor	Lead time	Bottleneck step
Ethiopian	3-5 weeks	Addis pre-departure training (2-3 weeks)
Indian	4-6 weeks	MEA eMigrate verification (1-2 weeks)
Sri Lankan	4-6 weeks	SLBFE pre-departure verification (2 weeks)
Kenyan	4-6 weeks	NEA clearance and orientation (2 weeks)
Filipina (standard)	4-7 weeks	DMW contract attestation + PDOS (2-3 weeks)
Filipina (experienced)	5-8 weeks	Same as standard + candidate scarcity

On top of the corridor timeline, the UAE-side chain adds 1-2 weeks: entry permit issuance, medical fitness on arrival, Emirates ID biometrics, residence visa stamping, contract registration on the MOHRE module. The centre runs this in parallel where possible, but the sequence is non-negotiable - the worker must be in the UAE physically before the medical and Emirates ID can happen.

The bottleneck on every corridor is the source-country pre-departure step. If you need a helper urgently, the only honest answer is the Ethiopian or Kenyan corridor, and even those rarely complete in under 3 weeks. Households that need same-week help should look at the Tadbeer hourly/live-out service instead of full live-in recruitment.

The UAE-side documents (sponsor Emirates ID, Ejari tenancy, salary certificate, marriage certificate for sponsoring through spouse income) are the same across nationalities. What changes is the source-country attestation and embassy clearance on the worker side. Here is the per-corridor breakdown.

Filipina (DMW process)

• DMW (ex-POEA) Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC)
• Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS) certificate
• Contract attested at the Migrant Workers Office (MWO) in Dubai
• POLO/MWO endorsement of the sponsor's residence visa and salary certificate
• Police clearance from PNP and NBI

Indian (MEA eMigrate)

• Passport with ECR status
• eMigrate verification of the employment contract
• Police clearance certificate (PCC)
• Medical certificate from a Gulf Approved Medical Centres Association (GAMCA) clinic

Ethiopian (post-MOU)

• Ministry of Labour and Skills employment permit
• Certified pre-departure training certificate (Addis approved provider)
• Police clearance from the Federal Police
• GAMCA medical clearance
• UAE embassy attestation of the standard contract

Sri Lankan (SLBFE)

• SLBFE registration and training certificate
• Standard contract on SLBFE template
• Police clearance from Sri Lanka Police
• Medical clearance through SLBFE-approved clinic

Kenyan (NEA)

• NEA clearance certificate
• Pre-departure orientation programme certificate
• Certificate of Good Conduct (DCI Kenya)
• Medical clearance and UAE embassy attestation

The Tadbeer centre's source-country agency partner handles most of this in practice. Your visibility is mostly into the UAE-side documents you supply at intake, which run through MOHRE after the centre files the case. If you are using Tadbeer Al Barsha or another Dubai centre, ask explicitly which Manila, Addis, Colombo, or Nairobi partner they are routing through - the depth of that relationship is what determines whether the documents come through clean or with delays.

Several recurring patterns push the final cost above the headline package, sometimes by AED 5,000-10,000. Knowing them up front saves real money.

Nationality switch at the last minute

Households sometimes sign for one nationality, then ask to switch (e.g. from Ethiopian to Filipina) once the contract is live but the worker has not yet arrived. The centre will usually treat this as a fresh recruitment - the original package is consumed and a new one begins. Decide nationality before signing the contract, not after.

Salary below the source-country floor

Centres occasionally quote a monthly salary below the source-country minimum to keep the headline cheap. The worker arrives, the embassy spots the under-payment during routine WPS-DW monitoring, and either the contract is reset upward or a complaint is filed. Always ask the centre to confirm in writing that the quoted salary meets the source-country floor.

Hidden source-country agency fees

The Tadbeer package should bundle the source-country agency fee. Some smaller centres unbundle it and add it as a separate line at the last minute. Ask explicitly: "is the source-country agency fee included in this package?"

Pre-arrival training charged to the sponsor

The MOU rules on the Ethiopian, Kenyan, and Sri Lankan corridors prohibit charging the worker for pre-departure training. Some centres try to pass the training cost to the sponsor as a separate line. This is legitimate when transparent and embedded in the package; less so when it appears as a surprise add-on.

Insurance plan downgrade

The mandatory health insurance line in the Tadbeer package is the cheapest plan that meets Dubai Health Insurance Law minimums. If you want broader coverage (maternity, dental, higher hospital tier), the upgrade cost is on you and can run AED 1,500-3,500 extra. Decide before signing.

Cash payment from day one

The single most expensive mistake long-term. Paying the worker in cash instead of through WPS-DW forfeits your refund if the placement later fails, exposes you to MOHRE penalties from April 2025, and weakens any complaint defence. Use WPS-DW from month one. The detail is in our cancellation guide.

A persistent question: can you recruit a domestic worker outside the Tadbeer system? The honest answer in {year} is mostly no, and where it is technically possible the risk profile has tilted decisively against the household.

Route	Legal status	Cost	Risk
Tadbeer centre (MOHRE-licensed)	Fully legal	AED 10,000-30,000 / 2 yrs	Low; 2-year guarantee enforced
Tadbeer third-party sponsorship	Fully legal	AED 3,500-5,500 / month	Low; helper on centre's file
Direct hire from inside UAE (worker transfers)	Legal via Tadbeer-to-Tadbeer transfer only	AED 5,000-12,000 transfer fee	Low if processed correctly
Direct recruitment from source country (no centre)	Not permitted for residence-visa sponsorship	Variable	High; cannot register MOHRE contract
Unlicensed agency or broker	Illegal; AED 50,000-200,000 sponsor fine + ban	Variable	Severe

The Tadbeer-to-Tadbeer transfer route is worth understanding if you are looking at a worker already in the UAE who is leaving a previous household. The transfer fee is much lower than a fresh recruitment, the timeline is 1-2 weeks instead of 4-8, and the worker already has Emirates ID and visa setup. The catch: the worker must have at least 6 months left on her current residence visa and the prior sponsor must sign off cleanly. Walk into Tadbeer Al Quoz with the worker present to run the transfer.

The unlicensed-broker route is the one to avoid completely. MOHRE penalties for using an unlicensed recruiter were tightened in {year}, with sponsor fines now at AED 50,000-200,000 plus a multi-year ban on sponsoring future domestic workers. The fines are actively enforced.

The number households actually want to know is the all-in 2-year total: package, salary, end-of-service, insurance renewal, the lot. Here it is for each major corridor at the standard-tier rate, assuming the helper completes the full 24 months without cancellation.

Nationality	Package (AED)	24 months salary (AED)	Insurance renewal yr 2 (AED)	End-of-service yr 2 (AED)	2-yr all-in (AED)
Ethiopian (standard)	12,000	31,200 (at 1,300/mo)	1,800	~1,820	~46,820
Kenyan (standard)	12,500	33,600 (at 1,400/mo)	2,000	~1,960	~50,060
Sri Lankan (standard)	14,000	38,400 (at 1,600/mo)	2,000	~2,240	~56,640
Indian (standard)	15,500	43,200 (at 1,800/mo)	2,200	~2,520	~63,420
Filipina (standard)	20,000	52,800 (at 2,200/mo)	2,500	~3,080	~78,380
Filipina (experienced nanny)	28,000	72,000 (at 3,000/mo)	3,500	~4,200	~107,700

End-of-service is calculated at 21 days of basic salary per year of service for the first 5 years, paid on contract end. The all-in number is what to plan for if you intend to keep the helper for the full 24 months. If the placement is cancelled mid-contract, the maths shifts to the pro-rata refund formula covered in our Tadbeer cancellation guide.

For sponsors in Abu Dhabi, the structure is identical but the centre is different - Tadbeer Mussafah handles most of the AD domestic worker pipeline and prices closely track Dubai.

Choosing a domestic worker corridor is partly budget, partly language, partly the kind of help your household actually needs. The shorthand we use at our family sponsorship desk:

• Budget-first, housekeeping only, Arabic or English household: Ethiopian or Kenyan corridor.
• Childcare needs, English-medium household, willing to pay for fluency: Filipina nanny tier.
• South Asian household, cooking expectation, mid-budget: Indian or Sri Lankan corridor.
• Below AED 25,000 monthly income: Tadbeer third-party sponsorship, any corridor.
• Need help in under 3 weeks: Tadbeer hourly/live-out service; recruitment cannot run that fast.

Related Wathim reading: the cross-GCC family sponsorship hub and the UAE family sponsorship page; the portal reference for MOHRE; and once the helper is in place, the Tadbeer cancellation and refund guide for the day the contract eventually ends.