Leave Application Letter

Apply to your employer for annual, sick, maternity, parental, bereavement, study, national service or unpaid leave, with the days counted as the Labour Law counts them and your entitlement checked, as PDF or DOCX. Nothing you enter here is remembered.

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Letter details

Your nameYour positionEmployerLeaveFirst day of leave

Day first — DD/MM/YYYYLast day of leave

Day first — DD/MM/YYYY · inclusiveReturn to work

Day first — DD/MM/YYYY · after the last day of leaveContact while awayOptional · printed as typed · 120 characters max

Handover notesOptional · printed word for word · 600 characters maxAdditional noteOptional · printed word for word · 400 characters max · a diagnosis is never required

Entitlement check

For your information only — nothing in this box is printed in the letter.

Article 29(1): 30 days a year after one year of service, 2 days a month after six months. Counted in calendar days; public holidays within the leave count as part of it (Article 29(7)).

Joining date

Optional · DD/MM/YYYY · for the balanceAnnual leave already taken (days)Optional · in this employment

Generating sends these details to our document service to build the file. The finished letter is returned to you and is not stored on our servers. Privacy Notice

Legal basis

Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations — Arts. 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 67
Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 (Implementing Regulation of the Labour Law) — Art. 21

Last reviewed: 2026-09-23

* A letter template you review, complete and sign — not legal advice. You, the employee who sends it, are responsible for its content. Each leave has its own length and rule: annual leave (Article 29), maternity (Article 30), sick leave, reported within 3 working days with a medical report (Article 31(1)), bereavement, parental and study leave (Article 32, with the proof listed in Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, Article 21), and unpaid leave only with the employer’s approval (Article 33). The page warns when a request exceeds the law but does not stop you; put no more medical detail in the letter than the employer needs. The employment contract, the law that actually applies (the DIFC and ADGM free zones have their own employment laws) and any decision of MOHRE or a court prevail over this template — check it with MOHRE or a qualified adviser before you issue it.

This tool writes your leave application to your employer — from you, signed by you. Choose the leave, enter the dates and the day you return, and the letter names the article of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 the leave rests on and counts the days the way the law does. A check beside the form shows the statutory length, using the same figures as the annual, sick and maternity leave calculators.

Which leaves, and how they are counted

Annual leave (Article 29), sick leave (Article 31), maternity leave (Article 30), parental leave (Article 32(1)(b)), bereavement leave (Article 32(1)(a)), study leave (Article 32(2)), national service leave for UAE nationals (Article 32(3)) and unpaid leave (Article 33). The law counts parental leave — 5 working days within six months of the birth — and study leave — 10 working days a year — in working days, so you state them; every other leave is counted in calendar days from the dates.

Annual leave is 30 days a year after one year of service and 2 days a month after six months (Article 29(1)); with your joining date the check shows the balance accrued to the first day of the leave. Sick leave is up to 90 days a year after probation: 15 days with full pay, 30 with half pay, the rest unpaid (Article 31(3)). Maternity leave is 60 days: 45 with full wage and 15 with half wage (Article 30(1)).

What the letter says

The letter asks for the leave, gives the dates, the number of days and your return date, and adds the sentence the law asks of that leave: for sick leave, that you are informing your employer and submitting a medical report (Article 31(1)) — never a diagnosis; for bereavement or parental leave, that you will submit proof of the death or the birth (Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, Article 21). An optional contact while you are away and optional handover notes are printed as you type them.

A request longer than the law’s figure is not refused: the check warns you, because the extra days need your employer’s agreement or come from leave carried forward.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many days of annual leave do I get in the UAE?

At least 30 days a year once you have completed a year of service, and 2 days for each month when your service is more than six months and less than a year (Article 29(1) of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021). Public holidays within the leave count as part of it unless your contract gives more (Article 29(7)).

Do I have to tell my employer why I am sick?

You must inform your employer within three working days and submit a medical report issued by the medical entity (Article 31(1)). The letter says that and nothing more; it never asks for a diagnosis.

Is the information I enter stored?

No. Generating sends your entries to our document service, which returns the finished file and stores none of it. The full field-level data flow is published in the Privacy Notice.