Ways to Get a Residence Visa in Dubai

How to get a residence visa in Dubai

General procedure to obtain a residence visa requires an employment contract/shareholding in a company established in Dubai/Freelancer Permit/Property in Freehold areas.  Once the entry permit is issued the individual can travel to UAE or do change status if they are inside the country. Upon completing this process the applicant must appear for Medical Test. Once the Medical test is cleared and declared fit, the applicant must obtain a health insurance policy which needs to be submitted for the visa stamping. Once the visa is stamped, it’s valid for 2 year or 3 years depending on the type of visa they have opted for.

Following are the possibilities to obtain a residence visa in Dubai. Let’s discuss the requirement for each and process for the same.

Employment Visa

The most common way of obtaining a residence visa in the UAE is through employment visa. Most expats in Dubai owning residence visa is through the employment visa.  Once an individual is offered a Job, the employer will process the labour permit for the employee to work for the company. Upon the approval of the Labour permit, the file will be submitted in the Immigration to issue the Entry permit. This Entry permit will be used by employee to enter the country and the above said visa procedure has to be followed to complete the visa stamping process. The individual holding employment visa from the mainland company is valid for 2 years and employment visa issued by any Free zone authority in Dubai is valid for 3 years.

Investor Visa

Investor visa is issued for the individuals investing in the country to setup their Business. To get the eligibility for the investor visa, the shareholder or owner must have the share value of more than AED 70,000 in the business. The minimum declared share capital for a Mainland company is usually AED 300,000. Irrespective of the number of shareholders in the company, the Immigration department allows to take only 2 investor visas from the company. The rest of the investors can take employment visa from the company. The investor visa is valid for 3 years. The individual must submit latest 6 month bank statement to process investor visa.

Property visa

The requirements and terms to obtain the Property visa are as follows. The Property visa must be applied through the Dubai Land Department (DLD). The Land Department issues a license while obtaining a Property visa and the license must be renewed every 4 years. The visa must be renewed every 2 years.

Documents required for Initial Approval

• Passport copy of the Applicant
• NOC from the employer/company/spouse/guardian (If applicant is in valid UAE residence visa)
• Copy of title deed
• One personal photo graph size 6*4
• Copy of current valid visa (Tourist visa/Visit visa/Residence visa)
• Certificate of Good conduct from Dubai Police
• In case property is mortgaged, NOC to issue residence visa on property from bank must be in Arabic and stamped statement from the bank for the loan.
• Latest DEWA bill if the document says as land in the title deed instead of villa. Tenancy contract is the property is rented

 Terms & conditions

• The property should be owned by the applicant and it should be either flat or a villa. The commercial properties will not be considered. Title deed issued from Dubai Land Department after purchasing should be submitted.
• It should be in the freehold area.
• There should be a mortgage-free amount on the property purchase value of more than AED 1 million
• If the property is mortgaged, the outstanding credit must not be more than 50%/ AED 1 Million (whichever is higher). Loan statement and NOC from bank is required.
• Leased property is not eligible to apply for property visa
• The property can be shared between spouses. Attested marriage certificate will be required.
• More than one visa can be applied on a single property, given there are different owners of the property and the above terms are satisfied. 

Dependent visa

The expats obtaining Employment visa/Investor visa/Freelance Permit visa can sponsor their family members like spouse, children and parents. An individual holding employment visa can sponsor his spouse and children provided he has a salary of AED 3,000 per month and accommodation provided by his employer or fixed salary of AED 4,000 per month. In case a wife is sponsoring a husband, her children, etc, the salary should be AED 10,000 per month. Apart from the salary, the marriage and birth certificates will be required. In case of the person holding an Investor visa, the dependents can be sponsored based on the DEWA bill, documentation of marriage and birth certificates and a deposit AED 3,000 per dependent. The marriage certificate and birth certificate must be attested in the UAE Embassy of the applicant’s home country and in MOFA, UAE in order the process the dependent visa. The individual must also submit the tenancy agreement and latest DEWA bill as a supporting document for the process. To process parent’s visa, he/she must have salary of AED 20,000 per month and 2 Bed Room Apartment. The parent’s visa has to be processed for both Father and Mother together. In unfortunate situation if the parents are not together or any one is expired, the supporting legal document must be submitted.

Freelancer Permit and Visa

Freelancer Permit is offered by a few Free zones in UAE for specified professionals. The professional includes Media related sectors, Education related sectors and Technology related sectors. The Freelancer permit holders can avail the residence visa for 2 or 3 years depending on the Free zone they choose. To avail this permits the individual must submit the following documents

• Business plan defining your objective as per the selected activities.
• CV
• Passport Copy & Visa Page
• NOC (if UAE resident): No Objection Letter provided by the individual’s sponsor allowing the applicant to transfer the resident visa and to obtain a freelance permit with Tecom
• Portfolio / Samples of works (For media sector only)
• Bank reference letter
• 2 Reference letter(s): Reference letter provided from your Clients/Manager recommending your ability to work as individual(Subject to the Authority requirement)

We at Flying Colour Business Setup Services can advise you on the most appropriate solution for your business setup, PRO Services, Accounting and tax needs. We have processed several employee, investor, freelance, dependent and property visas over the past 15 years. 

This blog post is written by Mr. Anand. Feel free to call today for a more detail on long term visa related queries. Please send inquiry to info[at]flyingcolour[dot]com or call +971 4 4542366