Working in Bahrain

Legal ways to work there

• Employer sponsored work permit through the LMRA after a written job offer.
• Domestic workers sign a Tripartite Domestic Employee Contract with the employer and the licensed employment office.
• The old "flexi permit" was abolished in December 2022; nobody can sell you one.

Your rights

• After 12 months on your work permit your employer cannot block a move to a new employer; you give your notice (30 days, or up to 90 if your contract says so). Moves in the last three months of the permit need the employer's consent.
• Private sector wages are paid through the LMRA Wage Protection System.
• Domestic workers keep their own passport and ID, may not be charged any recruitment fee, and their employer pays recruitment, flights and permit costs without deducting them from wages.
• Domestic workers: at least one full day off a week, 30 days' paid annual leave after a year, and end of service pay of half a month's wage a year for the first three years and a month a year after that.

Pay floor

Set by your contract; check the wage on the contract before you travel.

Red flags

• Anyone asking you to pay for a job, a "visa slot" or a medical test booking before you have a real written offer.
• An offer without an interview, or a contract sent only by WhatsApp.
• An agent who is not registered with TaESA, or who asks to keep your passport.
• Anyone selling a "flexi visa": the scheme no longer exists.

Where to get help

• LMRA call centre: 17506055.
• Bahrain anti-trafficking hotline: 995.
• The Tanzanian embassy in Abu Dhabi, which also covers Bahrain.
• TaESA before you travel.

Tanzanian embassy contacts

From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (official list) and each mission's own website, checked 5 November 2026. Call before you visit.