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AyRojgar

Overseas manpower recruiting agency

A licensed agency sending workers abroad. A new licence needs a Tk 35 lakh security deposit plus about Tk 4 lakh in fees, and doing this work without a licence carries up to five years in jail.

  • Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
  • Version 1
Overseas manpower recruiting agency

Overseas manpower recruiting agency

Starting capital
৳39,00,000 – ৳50,00,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
3 – 12 people
First sale
730 – 1,095 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
7 – 18 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Shop · Hard

About the business

A licensed agency that sends workers abroad: securing a demand letter from a foreign employer, selecting workers, arranging medicals, training, visa and BMET clearance, and putting them on the plane. In 2025 more than 11.25 lakh Bangladeshis went abroad for work, 750,967 of them to Saudi Arabia. The trade is profitable, but the door is expensive. A new licence requires a Tk 35 lakh security deposit by pay order - down from Tk 50 lakh under a gazette dated 5 January 2026 - plus roughly Tk 4 lakh in fees. Paying does not guarantee a licence: over 400 applications have sat for nearly three years with the money locked up. That is where the trap lies. Most people actually start as sub-agents, feeding workers to somebody else's licence. But the Overseas Employment and Migrants Act 2013 makes recruitment activity without a licence an offence: sending or helping to send a worker in breach of the Act carries up to five years in jail and a fine of not less than Tk 1 lakh, and trading in visas carries two to seven years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of not less than Tk 3 lakh. Low-skilled workers actually pay Tk 4-10 lakh for a job abroad, three to four times the government-fixed ceiling. That gap is the worker's debt, and it is also what produces the cases, the cancellations and the jail terms: 188 licences were cancelled and 191 suspended in 2025.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳3,00,000 – ৳20,00,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳4,00,000 – ৳10,00,000 / unitDisputed
Variable cost৳3,50,000 – ৳8,00,000 / unitEditorial estimate
Gross margin12.5% – 20%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue730 – 1,095 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time7 – 18 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle30 – 90 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss5% – 15%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity0.3 – 3Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • BMET emigration clearance (smart card) for every worker. Without it a worker cannot leave legally for work.Licence
  • Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality - an attested copy is a mandatory attachment to the recruiting licence application. Form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type.Licence
  • TIN and income tax certificate, bank statement, police clearance, and an affidavit not to charge more than the government-fixed amount: all are conditions of the licence application.Licence
  • Recruiting agent's licence from the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment. Under section 9 of the Overseas Employment and Migrants Act 2013 no recruitment activity may be carried on without one. Valid three years, renewable on a fee. Security deposit Tk 35 lakh (cut from Tk 50 lakh by a gazette of 5 January 2026), plus roughly Tk 4 lakh in fees.Licence
  • Dealing and bargaining with foreign employers, the demand-letter attestation process, knowledge of visa and labour rules, and the ability to prepare a worker's papers without error.Skill
  • Foreign employers or their agents; government-approved medical centres; technical training centres; and the people who find workers in the villages, whose work the new rules propose to bring under registration.Supplier
  • A permanent office where workers and their families can sit and where records are kept. Most agencies keep their head office in the Naya Paltan-Fakirapool area of Dhaka.Workspace

How the work is done

  1. 1Decide first where you will stand: your own licence, or work under someone else's. The Act leaves no room for recruitment activity without a licence, and you should know that before anything else.
  2. 2Check eligibility. You must be a Bangladeshi citizen; for a company at least 60 percent of shares must be Bangladeshi-owned; anyone convicted of human trafficking or money laundering is barred.
  3. 3Assemble the papers: attested trade licence, income tax certificate with TIN, bank statement, police clearance, and an affidavit that you will not charge more than the government-fixed amount.
  4. 4Apply to the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment and lodge the Tk 35 lakh security deposit by pay order, plus about Tk 4 lakh in fees. There is no guarantee of when approval comes.
  5. 5Once licensed, complete BMET registration and take BAIRA membership. The licence runs three years and must then be renewed on payment of a fee.
  6. 6Get a demand letter from the foreign employer and have it attested by the labour wing of the Bangladesh mission in that country. Do not think about buying visas in the market - that carries the heaviest penalty of all.
  7. 7Select workers. The rule requires at least 100 workers a year, of whom at least 20 must be against the agency's own demand letter. Processing other people's paperwork does not satisfy this.
  8. 8Complete the worker's medical, pre-departure training, passport and visa, then take the BMET emigration clearance (smart card). No one leaves legally for work without it.
  9. 9Give a receipt for everything you take from the worker and keep the account. Overcharging is what the cases are built on, and you signed an affidavit saying you would not do it.
  10. 10Stay in touch after the worker arrives. Unpaid wages, no job, or deportation all come back as complaints against the agency, and compensation can be taken out of the security deposit.
  11. 11Renew the licence every three years and file the required reports. In 2025, 188 licences were cancelled and 191 suspended; renewal and compliance are the whole of survival here.

Seasons

  1. JanNormal
  2. FebNormal
  3. MarNormal
  4. AprNormal
  5. MayNormal
  6. JunNormal
  7. JulNormal
  8. AugNormal
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctNormal
  11. NovNormal
  12. DecNormal
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitBrahmanbaria · As migration-dense as Cumilla, and easily connected along the Dhaka-Chattogram highway.
  • Strong fitChattogram · A BMET district employment and manpower office and technical training centres, with a heavy flow of workers to the Middle East.
  • Strong fitCumilla · An old and dense Middle East migration belt; nearly every village has a family abroad, so finding workers is easy.
  • Strong fitDhaka · The licence, BMET clearance, embassy attestation and BAIRA office are all in Dhaka, and agency head offices cluster in Naya Paltan and Fakirapool.
  • Strong fitSylhet · A long history of migration and cash in the hands of migrant families, so the cost of going is easier to raise.
  • PossibleChandpur · Also a steady sender of workers to the Middle East, connected to Dhaka by both river and road.
  • PossibleMunshiganj · Next to Dhaka with a long tradition of going abroad, and easy access to the airport.
  • PossibleNarsingdi · An industrial belt next to Dhaka with many young workers and easy access to capital-city offices.
  • PossibleNoakhali · A remittance-dependent area where families will sell land to send one member abroad.
  • PossibleTangail · Close to Dhaka, with established links to the Middle East labour market.

Risks and cautions

  • HighCompliance: The penalties for unlicensed work are severe. Under section 31 of the Overseas Employment and Migrants Act 2013, sending or helping to send someone abroad in breach of the Act, or taking money on a false promise of a job, carries up to five years in jail and a fine of not less than Tk 1 lakh. Under section 33, buying or selling demand letters or visas carries two to seven years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of not less than Tk 3 lakh. This is exactly where newcomers enter - finding workers under someone else's licence - and when it goes wrong the liability lands on them.
  • HighWorking capital: Even after lodging the Tk 35 lakh deposit the business cannot start. As of 9 January 2026 more than 400 applications had been pending for nearly three years - the money is in, the income is zero. Three years of living costs and office rent have to come from somewhere else.
  • HighDependency: Of the 11.25 lakh workers who went abroad in 2025, 750,967 went to Saudi Arabia alone. That concentration means that if Saudi visas slow or stop, the agency's work nearly stops with them. Qatar took 107,397, Singapore 70,004 and Kuwait 42,657 - everything else put together is nowhere near Saudi Arabia.
  • HighDemand: There are far more agencies than the market needs: 923 in 2015, 2,646 on 4 November 2025 and 2,676 on 14 March 2026, against researchers' view that 500-800 would be enough. In that crowd many agencies cannot secure their own demand letters and merely process papers for workers who found jobs themselves - while the rule requires at least 100 workers a year, 20 of them on the agency's own demand.
  • HighOther: Licence cancellation and suspension are routine: 188 cancelled and 191 suspended in 2025, with 252 new ones issued the same year. Charging above the government-fixed rate - in practice Tk 4-10 lakh from a low-skilled worker, three to four times the ceiling - is the commonest reason for cancellation and for the cases that follow.

Sources

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