Your Home, Your Business in Dubai
Want to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle in Dubai? This city offers diverse opportunities for tourists, entrepreneurs, and investors. Investors from across the globe choose Dubai to make a home for their families and their business ventures.
The pleasurable conditions for business in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, enabled by decades-long market-friendly government policies, have put Dubai at the forefront of business, financial and commercial aspects of the region.
Dubai is a place for foreign investment. You can legally reside in the UAE as an investor by tailoring a unique investment-driven visa program. This allows investors to build a secure future for their families and businesses.
How to get Investor Visa in Dubai ?
This visa is also called the Dubai Partner Visa. It applies to foreign nationals who wish to enter the business field in Dubai by either starting their own business or joining an existing one.
The Dubai Investor visa grants the holder the right to stay in the UAE, and they can travel back and forth as they please for the duration of the visa. Anyone who holds the Dubai Investor Visa becomes a tax domicile of the UAE and is not taxable by the country they hold the nationality. However, this may vary according to the investor’s home country’s regulations.
A holder of a Dubai Investor Visa can apply for an Emirates ID card, have a bank account, get a driving license, sign up for Etisalat or Du mobile and home packages, and other essential services.
The Dubai Investor allows the holder to sponsor their spouse, children, and parents in the UAE.
It is divided into four different categories:
- Investment in Residential Property
- Investment in a company
- Long term Residence
- Retirement
- Visa by Investment in Residential Property
This kind of visa is for individuals who want to invest in a residential property worth 1 million or above, with 50% property value under mortgage at the maximum. Investors in a jointly owned property can apply for this visa if each share is worth at least 1 million.
This type of investment must be in residential property and not in commercial property. Additionally, only freehold residential properties are applicable under this visa; off-plan properties don’t fall under this visa.
The visa length can be from three to five years and can be kept until the investor owns property in the country.
The three-year visa applies to individuals with a property worth 1 million or more, while the five-year visa requires the owner to have a property worth AED 5 million.
- Visa by Investment in a Company
This visa is available to individuals who choose to invest in a business in Dubai or start their own business on the mainland or in free zones. There are more than 2,100 types of business licenses offered by the Dubai Economy so that you can start a business on the mainland.
Due to the latest regulations in the country, foreigners are allowed complete ownership in Dubai’s mainland. There is no requirement for commercial companies to have a majority Emirati shareholder or agent.
The UAE cabinet set policies that allow full foreign ownership of onshore companies in commercial activities.
An investor who owns shares in an existing company worth a minimum of AED 72,000 or who is establishing a company with a capital investment worth around the same amount is granted the visa. When foreign investors wish to start a business in Dubai’s free zones, they don’t require a local sponsor and can have full ownership. Variables like the company’s location and the business’s nature influence the visa application process.
- Long-term Residence Visa
This visa applies to those who meet specific criteria, making them eligible for a five-year or ten-year residency visa, depending on the size of their investment in the country. The investor’s spouse, children, manager, and one advisor come under this category and can apply for the visa.
Investors of a minimum of AED 10 million, either through a deposit in an investment fund inside the country or establishing a corporation within the UAE with a capital of a minimum of AED 10 million, or partnering in an existing or a replacement company with a share value of not less but AED 10 million, or having a total investment of AED 10 million altogether in all areas are eligible to use for this ten-year-long residency visa.
On the other hand, a five-year visa is available to investors in a property with a gross value of not less than AED 5 million. Entrepreneurs with an existing project of minimum capital of AED 500,000, subject to additional jurisdictions, can also apply for a five-year visa.
Investors who meet the set standards by the General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs-Dubai can be issued this long-term visa. For E.g. individuals with specialized talents, such as scientists and innovators in medical, scientific, research, and technical fields, are granted long-term residences by the system.
- Retirement Visa
Foreign investors who wish to retire under Dubai’s beautiful sunshine come under this category. This visa is crafted for investors above the age of 55. This retirement visa is a five-year visa available to individuals who invest in a property worth AED 2 million or have savings worth AED 1 million or a monthly income of at least AED 20,000.
The Dubai investor visa depends on each applicant and differs from one person to another.
- How many visa categories are there in Dubai?
There are several types of visas and entry permits issued by the UAE Government based on the intention of the visit. They are business visas, tourist visas, transit visas, student visas, retirement visas, and eVisa for GCC residents, patients, and their companion’s entry permits.
- What is Etisalat?
Etisalat is an Emirati-based multinational telecommunications services provider in 16 countries across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Its headquarters are in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Etisalat has 11.6 million customers and serves over 300,000 small, medium, and large enterprises and government customers in the UAE.