The ICP has activated Phase 2 of the Police Clearance Certificate requirement for work visas, adding Bangladesh, the Philippines and Nigeria among others. Employers hiring those nationals must now budget for one more document and for weeks of waiting outside the UAE's control.
What happened
The ICP — the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security — is rolling out in phases a requirement for a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) from work visa applicants originating from 45 countries. A Police Clearance Certificate is the document by which the police authority of the applicant's home country certifies that the person has no criminal record. Phase 2 came into force on 15 August 2026 and added eleven nationalities, among them Bangladesh, the Philippines and Nigeria. The certificate must be obtained before the work visa application is filed, not during processing.
What changes in practice
The document must be requested in the worker's country of origin, where issuing times are set by a foreign authority and are outside the control of UAE immigration offices. It must exist before the visa file is opened. The practical effect is that onboarding for the affected nationalities takes longer, and the certificate step has to be moved earlier in the hiring calendar rather than treated as paperwork to be completed once an offer is signed.
Who it applies to
To UAE employers hiring nationals of the countries covered by the ICP list. In concrete terms this affects almost any UAE business with a sizeable workforce — hospitality and food service, retail, personal services, logistics, cleaning and maintenance — where Filipino, Bangladeshi and Nigerian staff are the norm rather than the exception.
The exposure
The exposure is not a penalty, it is the calendar. A visa application refused or suspended means a person who cannot start work, and a business that has committed to an opening date or a service rota finds itself short-staffed weeks before launch. It is not a problem that money solves: the certificate is issued by a foreign authority on its own timetable.
What to do now
Three concrete checks. First, take the list of hires in progress or planned over the next three months and match each candidate's nationality against the list published by the ICP. Second, for those covered, request the Police Clearance Certificate before the offer letter is signed rather than after. Third, record in the hiring plan the date on which the certificate was requested, so that any delay becomes visible while it can still be recovered and not on the day the person was due to start.
Sources
Published 25 August 2026 on the basis of public sources and official United Arab Emirates instruments. This is not legal or tax advice. Verify your position with a qualified professional before acting.