Individuals whose work visas have been cancelled following redundancy, may soon be able to stay in the UAE for a longer period of time to find work, according to a report.

At present, UAE labour and immigration laws require expats who have lost their jobs, to find work within one month - or leave.

Emirates Business has quoted Hani Rashid Al Hamli, Dubai Economic Council secretary-general, who said that Dubai, along with the federal government, is "working on" stretching the grace period for holders of cancelled visas.

The length of the likely extension wasn’t given.

The report added that the new policy, which may be announced in the first half of this year, is expected to address the potential cases of job cuts due to the financial crisis.

"This is one of the top and urgent issues that we are tackling at the Dubai branch and at the federal level - to have a longer (grace) period. They are working on that, I can assure you of that," Al Hamli told the newspaper.

Al Hamli, when asked whether the new policy would take affect in the second half of the year, indicated it would be earlier than that, perhaps in one month or two months, although he couldn’t go into specifics due to the government having to upgrade the immigration laws, which will take a measure of time. – TradeArabia News Service