Live-in maids in the UAE

She keeps the home running and helps the family around it. MaidMatch describes the typical duties of a live-in maid as:

• Daily cleaning and tidying, so the home stays in order through the week
• Laundry and ironing for the household
• Basic meal preparation, from breakfast to simple family meals
• Support with the children and their routines, such as getting them ready for school or helping at bath time

Yes, if you want help every day and have space for her to live with you. A live-in maid often suits homes where both parents work, where there are young children, or where the household is large and busy.

Other kinds of help may fit better. A live-out maid comes in for agreed hours and goes home after work, which gives you more privacy. If your children are the main job, look at nannies, or at newborn and baby care for a baby. A housekeeper suits a home where keeping things in order is most of the work.

Living in also shapes her life, since your home becomes her home. Think about her room, her privacy, her meals and her day off before she arrives, and talk them through with her at the interview. Our guide to choosing between a maid, a nanny, a caregiver and a housekeeper can help if you are not sure which role you need.

Experience of a home like yours matters most: the size of the household, the ages of the children and the cooking you need. Choose on skills and experience, not nationality: compare helpers on what they have done. MaidMatch suggests checking four things in a live-in maid:

• Verified availability. MaidMatch regularly checks that each helper is still available and looking for work, and hides a profile when she stops responding.
• Strong references from families she has lived with before.
• Child-friendly behaviour, if you have children: ask which ages she has looked after.
• Clear communication in a language you share, so instructions and worries are easy to talk through.

Ask about the work, your home and her own needs, so that nothing comes as a surprise after she moves in. Watch her video CV on her profile first: it gives you a sense of how she communicates before you speak. Then ask:

• What did a normal day look like in her last live-in job, and how many people lived in the home?
• Which tasks does she enjoy most, and which has she done least: cleaning, laundry, cooking or childcare?
• Which ages of children has she looked after, and what did she do for them each day?
• What does she need from her room and her day off?
• Why did her last job end, and may you speak to that family?

The rules for every domestic worker, starting with her rest and her contract. Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2022, the UAE's law on domestic workers, sets them, and MOHRE (the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation) sets the standard contract form. They apply whether she lives in or out, so plan her working day around them:

• A domestic worker is entitled to at least 12 hours of rest a day, of which at least 8 must be consecutive.
• A domestic worker is entitled to one paid day off a week.
• A domestic worker's contract must be on MOHRE's standard form and state, among other terms, the nature and place of the work and the worker's total pay and how it is paid.

It depends on the helper you choose. Each helper lists her own salary range on her profile. When enough helpers match this page, it also shows the median and middle range of their asking salaries, so you can see what is usual on MaidMatch before you contact anyone.

The International Labour Organization's May 2024 summary of UAE rules covers minimum pay. The UAE sets no statutory minimum wage for domestic workers: any salary floor comes from her home country and applies only to contracts verified through that country's system. Her salary is also only part of the cost, because the official fees for her work permit and residence come on top. Our guide to hiring a maid in the UAE sets out those fees and the steps.

You browse, shortlist and contact her yourself, with no agency in between. Step by step:

1. Browse the live-in helpers on this page or on the helpers page, and watch their video CVs.
2. Shortlist the helpers whose experience fits your home, and compare what each one asks.
3. Contact her directly. Families contact helpers directly on WhatsApp, through the Hire button on each profile.
4. Agree the job before she starts: her duties, her working hours, her day off and her start date. Make sure her contract states the work you agreed.
5. Arrange her visa. Sponsorship is the employer's responsibility; families can manage the visa themselves or ask MaidMatch to connect them with its visa partners. Most helpers listed on MaidMatch are already in the UAE and ready to work, and our guide to hiring a maid who is already in the UAE explains that route.