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The Ministry of Labour has restricted expatriate recruitment activities to agencies it licenses under the new framework announced on October 11, 2026. Standardised contracts and forms approved by the ministry will clarify obligations among agencies, employers and workers. A register of licensed agencies will promote transparency in relationships across the recruitment process, according to details carried by the Times of Oman.
To obtain a licence, the owner, partners and authorised signatories of the agency must be Omani citizens, the ministry’s regulations state. The owner or one partner must manage the business full-time, register with the Ministry of Labour as an employer and secure registration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority. Applicants must deposit a financial guarantee of OMR5,000, which the ministry designed to strengthen credibility and provide protection if contractual obligations are breached.
Licensed agencies must maintain suitable premises for operations and provide appropriate accommodation for recruited workers while meeting occupational health and safety requirements, the ministry specified. Employers using these agencies must adopt standardised recruitment contracts approved by the ministry and receive a two-year guarantee on the services. The recruitment period cannot exceed 45 days under the new rules.
Oman’s expatriate workforce numbered 1,854,441 individuals with valid labour cards in September 2026, CEIC data drawn from Royal Oman Police records shows. The National Centre for Statistics and Information reported that private sector Omani employment reached 449,631 by the end of September 2026, marking a 6.8 per cent increase from the previous year. These figures illustrate the scale of the labour market that the new recruitment regulations seek to govern.
The regulations build on the Labour Law promulgated by Royal Decree 53/2023, which requires employers to maintain registers of Omani workers and submit annual Omanisation plans to the ministry, according to an analysis by the Mohammed Ibrahim Law Firm. The law empowers the Minister of Labour to set Omanisation percentages by sector and reserves certain occupations for nationals. Non-compliance can result in fines ranging from OMR500 to OMR1,000 per missing Omani worker.
The Ministry of Labour introduced a related tiered fee system for expatriate work permits in February 2026 that reduces fees by 30 per cent for firms meeting Omanisation targets and doubles them for those that do not, Times of Oman reported at the time. That package also extended work permit validity from 15 to 24 months to align with residency periods. The October 2026 recruitment agency rules add further structure to oversight of non-Omani manpower inflows.
