Dubai Residency Residency
Finding a long-term home in the UAE
Most people who start researching UAE residency aren't chasing a specific visa programme by name — they're looking for a stable, long-term place to live, with a process that's clear and doesn't need re-doing every year or two. This page is a map of the actual routes, starting from that question rather than from visa terminology.
The routes, in plain terms
| Route | Typical duration | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Employment visa | Tied to employment contract, typically 2–3 years | Anyone relocating for a UAE-based job |
| Property investor visa | Typically 2 years, renewable | Property owners above a set investment threshold |
| Golden Visa | 5 or 10 years, renewable | Larger property investors, business owners, and other qualifying categories — the route most people asking about long-term stability actually want |
Why the Golden Visa is usually the right question to ask
If what you actually want is not to think about your residency status again for a decade — rather than renewing paperwork every couple of years — the Golden Visa is the route built for that. The Golden Visa page covers eligibility, thresholds, and the property-investment route specifically; the family and lifestyle page covers what changes day to day once you have it.
News
All news
Sponsoring a visitor: the salary floors
GDRFA Dubai has set out what a resident must earn to bring someone over: Dh4,000 for a parent or child, Dh8,000 for a sibling, Dh15,000 for a friend.
66,078 golden visas in six months
GDRFA Dubai’s half-year figures: 66,078 golden visas, 29,456 five-year multiple-entry tourist visas and more than seven million visa and residency transactions between January and June.
ETIAS slips to 2027
eu-LISA has accepted that ETIAS cannot launch by the end of 2026. The biometric Entry/Exit System it depends on went fully live in April and is producing waits IATA has put at three to six hours.
