TeenDabbyWala

Maybe they do and I don't know about it

Hire the employee out of Karachi. Fly him to Dubai on Sunday morning so he can work Sunday - Thursday while staying in a hotel at night, and then fly him back on Thursday night. Pay for his flight, hotel and food. Employee wins by having a Dubai based job, company wins by not paying employee Dubai standard salary, housing allowance or any other costs that come by when hiring expats. Win Win situation for everyone.

Pretty common here in the US with IT contractors. They live in one city, but work in another.

Little Princess

oh woooowwwwwwww
every week flight

Silaaj

Im guessing its because of visa standards and requirements. In the situation described above, the employee would have to get a visit visa every week. Weekly costs, including air travel and hotel lodging and boarding would top 2000-3000 dirhams...adding up to 8000-12000 a month in such expenses alone. And then, having someone work while on a visit visa, which in itself is a violation of immigration law.

If on the other hand, the person is sponsored for an employment visa, he would still be cheaper if retained in dubai (ticket and lodging charges easily add up to 10,000 a month.

But Im sure there are people who probably do that. I know some businessmen who do exactly that.

X2

i think TDW has a point.
if visas can be sorted in a manner where someone has right to work, but is based in pakistan and flies in weekly

the calculation is

UAE salary --- compared to---- pakistani salary + travel/lodging costs

the things like visas and logistics i.e. airline capacity, hotel/company lodging capacity can be sorted if the basic numbers work out.

DD

A decent hotel will cost 6000 Dh per month, travel 8000 Dh, pay him lets say 1500 DH, visa fee 800 DH total 16300 DH, with that money employer will hire two Indian IT experts.

X2

the point is that there is always a way around. Infosys and tata consultants who come for 3 month assignments to US from India dont live in Hiltons but corporate apartments which are shared, so the cost is significantly lower than run of the mill motels, let alone decent hotels.

as far as travel, companies have deals with airlines, as a consultant I had access to fares that were not offered to avg consumers, because of bulk discounts negotiated by my company.

It may not be the right solution for all levels of workers, but for specialized skills, as TDW noted its done in US, where clients dont have a cost advantage, in the case TDW noted, there will be a cost advantage in salary, benefits, allowances..there can eb aways around travel and lodging costs.

Jalaluddin

it is a good idea. poor guys can feel like people for at least two days a week

Hashmat Usmani

TeenDabbyWala

Cool, someone got my point If the visa situation can be worked and the long lines at immigration for haray passport walay can some how be reduced, then this could work. Karachi is in a unique position to make this work since it is the closest city. This could even work for other gulf countries too.

TeenDabbyWala

This is why Pakistani leaders need to go and propose these kind of ideas. .

Entisar

^
Our leader can avail so many other ways for Pakistan and Pakistanis , but , if they will come out from their Personal Interests then.

TDW your point is reasonable valid valid for highly skilled workers only,

Employement visa is stamped for three years and one can make Multiple entries via that (I am not sure how many times) , then the Employee Housings allowance could be balanced with his/her Travel and Hoteling expenses (as X2 pointed , that huge discount could be found with airlines) and Hotels as well.

Silaaj

A professional would command just about as much salary in rupees as he would in dirhams, so it might not be practical.
If the company is hiring a software developer the scenario would be thus.
The developer would probably command a salary of Rs50,000-75,000 in Pakistan. An equivalent amount in dirhams would be AED 2,500-4,000. Surely the guy would not leave a salary of 75,000 in Pakistan, only to get an equivalent amount in dirhams. He would leave it only if he were getting more. So the dubai based firm would have to offer him at least 5,000. Apart from that, add to it boarding, lodging and ticketing, and it would add upto around 15,000 dirhams per month in costs for the company. They could hire a better person for around 10,000 instead, and have him stay in Dubai full time.

Corporate cultures differ every where, and dubai does not match up with US for now. Such an arrangment would make sense if the employee was a consultant, but does not work out if the person is working full time.

Slickstar

The bureaucracy will kill you.

TeenDabbyWala

Silaaj, all good points. Corporate culture and salaries make a big difference. But maybe a time for this will come also, and hopefully Pakistan will be ready to take advantage of this.

Is there a lot of outsourcing out of Dubai? Would make sense. It's so close, and with desis working on both sides there isn't even a cultural difference. But let me guess, Pakistan didn't take advantage of this either?

X2

wait, so people's salaries in Pak and UAE are the same?

dormant

VISA is a big problem for Pakistanis... (something for which i m personally suffering in the case of UAE).

Firstly, UAE does not offers multiple entry visas so easily, I did some research recently , there is no way someone can get a multiple entry VISA from Pakistan, residence & work permit sponsorship is a completely different thing.
The only way for someone to get a 6 month multiple entry visa is to apply from dubai itself , you need to have relationship with a reputable business in UAE & even then the chances for a Pakistani to get a VISA are not very bright,Remember we are considering this for a person with 'workers' profile not some big shot businessmen

Now, the other options are to get a short term (1-month VISA) or a long term (2-3 month) VISA however both of these visas are single entry.

The turn around time for getting this VISA is around 2-3 days the cost of short term visa is 7500 PKR in case you get it from emirates or 10000 PKR for american express.

You fly home on thursday night, give your passport to a travel agent friday morning-dubai is closed on friday & saturday, your visa processing starts on sunday morning & in the best case you fly on tuesday early mornings flight , so not just the cost its not feasible to fly every week because of visa turnaround times,
Ok how about flying every 2-3 weeks well here is the catch if you travel on any type of single entry VISA to dubai & stay there for more then 7-8 days you will not get another single entry VISA for one month!!!

However, inspite of all this what the op has mentioned is currently happening in some respect specifically for IT-contractors in Pakistan. What happens is that the Pakistani company takes a 3 month VISA for their employees (the official fees is 1K AED, but you have to pay some money to the sponser I recently bought a 3 month VISA for 70000 PKR ie. around 3300 AED. The company rents a 2-3 bedroom flat in dubai, where 6-7 of their employees stay. The employees are contracted to different dubai based firms & come home once every 3 months where they then stay for one month or so till they get their next VISA. They get a Pakistani salary + daily per-diem for the duration of their stay in UAE
in which they have to manage food & transport ,lodging is arranged by the company. The incentive for the employee is that they can save 20-30 dollars of per diem every day after their living expenses which easily doubles their salary+ they do get exposure of working internationally which is considered a valuable addition to their profile as well as increases the chances of getting employment within middle-east, I know many people who went on 2-3 month secondments & got job offers from the company they were outsourced to .

Frozen~Oxygen

Why do they have to be in Dubai to do the work. Why can't they do it from Karachi (conventional outsourcing)..assuming the job is not a customer facing one..

We do the same..have 5-6 design engineers in Dubai for customer facing and meetings..and the design team in Chennai (200 engineers) .. The cost of those 5 engineers is about the same as the cost of 200 in chennai..