# Help with working remote from Dubai



## atron (Aug 5, 2020)

Hi, Im a US citizen and work for a US company with the flexibility to work remote and have been looking at options to travel and go country to country for 1-2 months at a time.

Im looking to plan to go to Dubai, but I have a Cisco Voip business phone that I must bring with me and my work laptop.

Do I need to declare this on coming in? 
Also will it get confiscated trying to go into the country?
I will not work for a UAE employer, everything would be from my apartment.

I just want to work my US hours and enjoy Dubai on my non work hours then leave and go to the next country. 

Nothing will change as far as how I get paid, banking, etc and will be spending using my dollars. Accommodations will be at a Airbnb.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Hi,
Few things
You cannot work in the UAE - without the correct type of visa.
THe VOIP phone is unlikely to work here - the local telcos have their own VOIP services and block unapproved ones.
There are workarounds for this - but these are illegal.
Penalties for breaking laws here tend to be much harsher than equivalent penalties in western countries.
Cheers
Steve


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## UKMS (Jan 9, 2017)

atron said:


> Hi, Im a US citizen and work for a US company with the flexibility to work remote and have been looking at options to travel and go country to country for 1-2 months at a time.
> 
> Im looking to plan to go to Dubai, but I have a Cisco Voip business phone that I must bring with me and my work laptop.
> 
> ...


Can understand your desire to work from here however your Cisco phone may be confiscated and even if it isn’t it’s likely that it won’t work. 

Interesting how you feel it’s ok to just drop in to Dubai and work ...... I wonder how that would go down if I dropped into the USA and decided to work 😉 ?


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## XDoodlebugger (Jan 24, 2012)

UKMS said:


> Can understand your desire to work from here however your Cisco phone may be confiscated and even if it isn’t it’s likely that it won’t work.
> 
> Interesting how you feel it’s ok to just drop in to Dubai and work ...... I wonder how that would go down if I dropped into the USA and decided to work 😉 ?


If someone from outside came to the US to work from their hotel room for a foreign company no one would do anything about it even if caught.


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## XDoodlebugger (Jan 24, 2012)

atron said:


> Hi, Im a US citizen and work for a US company with the flexibility to work remote and have been looking at options to travel and go country to country for 1-2 months at a time.
> 
> Im looking to plan to go to Dubai, but I have a Cisco Voip business phone that I must bring with me and my work laptop.
> 
> ...


My company uses a CISCO system VOIP to communicate with other branches in foreign countries, all going through the local telecoms. I also use the CISCO app Jabber when outside the country to receive calls to my office landline while traveling. I have no idea if your system will work though.


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## UKMS (Jan 9, 2017)

XDoodle****** said:


> My company uses a CISCO system VOIP to communicate with other branches in foreign countries, all going through the local telecoms. I also use the CISCO app Jabber when outside the country to receive calls to my office landline while traveling. I have no idea if your system will work though.


In reality now we are in the world of COVID many systems will work from domestic broadband. Not so easy pre COVID when much was blocked or unreliable at best from home when it worked fantastically in the office on a business connection (that you pay a premium for). Teams and Skype for Business is a good example which now works unrestricted domestically for voice, prior to COVID required a corporate (legal) VPN or it was disrupted, more so with Etisalat than Du. Whether things return to the way they were remains to be seen 

As for bringing in random telecom devices in your luggage, speaking from personal experience customs are sensitive and if found will usually be confiscated unless it is TRA approved or I believe you Can get a TRA permit which you can get for personally imported devices.


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## XDoodlebugger (Jan 24, 2012)

UKMS said:


> In reality now we are in the world of COVID many systems will work from domestic broadband. Not so easy pre COVID when much was blocked or unreliable at best from home when it worked fantastically in the office on a business connection (that you pay a premium for). Teams and Skype for Business is a good example which now works unrestricted domestically for voice, prior to COVID required a corporate (legal) VPN or it was disrupted, more so with Etisalat than Du. Whether things return to the way they were remains to be seen
> 
> As for bringing in random telecom devices in your luggage, speaking from personal experience customs are sensitive and if found will usually be confiscated unless it is TRA approved or I believe you Can get a TRA permit which you can get for personally imported devices.


I even had Facetime working the other day without any help. Our CISCO system has been in place over 8 years.


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## UKMS (Jan 9, 2017)

XDoodle****** said:


> UKMS said:
> 
> 
> > In reality now we are in the world of COVID many systems will work from domestic broadband. Not so easy pre COVID when much was blocked or unreliable at best from home when it worked fantastically in the office on a business connection (that you pay a premium for). Teams and Skype for Business is a good example which now works unrestricted domestically for voice, prior to COVID required a corporate (legal) VPN or it was disrupted, more so with Etisalat than Du. Whether things return to the way they were remains to be seen
> ...


FaceTime has been good for us too .... the FaceTime app has also been restored To UAE Apple devices in the 13.6 update .... things could be changing 🙂


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## Sunder (Mar 11, 2014)

UKMS said:


> FaceTime has been good for us too .... the FaceTime app has also been restored To UAE Apple devices in the 13.6 update .... things could be changing 🙂


Thats some news, I updated with 13.6 and I dont see Facetime in my device nor in the app store. Am I missing something ?


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## UKMS (Jan 9, 2017)

Sunder said:


> UKMS said:
> 
> 
> > FaceTime has been good for us too .... the FaceTime app has also been restored To UAE Apple devices in the 13.6 update .... things could be changing 🙂
> ...


On all of our devices ..... 2 iPhones and 3 iPads it appeared after the update it’s been widely discussed on the apple tech media. 

https://appleinsider.com/articles/2...les-facetime-in-the-united-arab-emirates/amp/


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

UKMS said:


> On all of our devices ..... 2 iPhones and 3 iPads it appeared after the update it’s been widely discussed on the apple tech media.
> 
> https://appleinsider.com/articles/2...les-facetime-in-the-united-arab-emirates/amp/


Ours too!
It appeared on all our UAE purchased iPhones and iPads after the recent update.
However - our carrier is Du and whilst it is on our phones - it does not seem to work properly.


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## UKMS (Jan 9, 2017)

Stevesolar said:


> UKMS said:
> 
> 
> > On all of our devices ..... 2 iPhones and 3 iPads it appeared after the update it’s been widely discussed on the apple tech media.
> ...


One step at a time ....... we can’t expect miracles 😃...... 

Mine has been hit and miss although I don’t use it that much 

There was mention that it was an error but I think it would have been rolled back by now if that was the case.


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