The new labour laws and relaxed visa policies in the UAE allow potential migrant workers to travel to the UAE using job seeker visit visas, seek employment, and then convert to work visas. This has drastically altered the recruitment space for labour migration, bringing personal and informal networks to the forefront. Using qualitative empirical evidence from Sri Lanka, this study examines how this new visit visa regime has influenced informal networks for foreign employment, migration outcomes for migrant workers, and the role of protective mechanisms for migrant workers. The study finds that the introduction of the new visit visa scheme has made informal networks more important and reliable for potential migrants seeking employment. It has also brought greater flexibility in the recruitment process, minimized the time and financial cost during the recruitment process, and provided greater opportunities for potential migrants to find employment overseas. However, the traditional regulatory framework for labour migration in Sri Lanka relegates migration under this new visit visa scheme and related informal networks into a grey area, leading to added dimensions of vulnerability for a subset of migrant workers and excluding them from protection and support.