Desk research against primary sources. Figures are traced to the issuing UAE authority and linked on the page.
The NOC has to name the specific outside work it covers, not stand as a blanket permission to take on anything going forward — a letter authorising one project does not extend automatically to another. Holding a Freelance Permit or Green Visa changes the analysis because it decouples your right to work from a single sponsoring employer, but it does not remove the need to check that the licensed activity on your permit actually covers what you plan to do.
MOHRE typically only investigates this when your primary employer raises a complaint, so the practical risk is less about detection in the abstract and more about whether your main employer becomes aware and decides to act. Dismissal and visa cancellation follow from the breach itself, not from how much you were paid for the side work, so a small or unpaid arrangement carries the same exposure as a substantial one if it was never authorised in writing.
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