Dubai Residency News
What's changing in UAE residency
Threshold and eligibility changes for the Golden Visa and other residency routes, kept apart from the reference pages themselves.
Residence for GCC families
Dubai's GDRFA issues UAE residence to the wives and children of GCC nationals who hold a foreign passport. The fee is AED 220, with AED 500 more for an application made inside the country; the documents are a photo, a passport copy and, over 18, a medical; the grace period after expiry is 60 days.
Golden visa at the sales centre
Buyers at the Meraas and Nakheel sales centre in Dubai can now start a UAE residency application at the same desk: a facilitation service for the 10-year Golden Visa on property worth AED 2 million or more, with the application filed by an accredited visa provider and the decision left to the authorities.
Golden visas for teachers
Dubai awarded ten-year golden visas to educators from the private sector on 5 October 2026, two years after the route opened. The UAE golden visa for teachers goes by nomination through the KHDA and judges qualifications, achievements and parent and student feedback.
UK ETA: £20
The UK Electronic Travel Authorisation rose from £16 to £20 on 8 April 2026. GCC nationals have needed it since February 2024, and many UAE residents on other passports do too: it covers stays of up to six months, every traveller including babies, and is applied for in the UK ETA app.
EES: fingerprints, no stamps
The Schengen Entry/Exit System now runs at every external border. A UAE traveller gives fingerprints and a photograph on the first entry, the passport is no longer stamped, and the 90-days-in-180 count is kept by the system rather than by the officer. The travel permit, ETIAS, comes later.
Five-year tourist visa: the cost
The UAE's five-year multiple-entry tourist visa asks for a bank balance of $4,000 over six months and about Dh3,713 in fees, most of it a Dh3,000 guarantee. Each visit is 90 days, extendable once, with 180 days a year in total. Dubai applications go through the GDRFA Dubai site.
Visa on arrival: the two prices
An Indian, Filipino or other passport holder with a residence permit or visa from a listed country can get a UAE visa at the airport: 14 days for Dh172.50 or 60 days for Dh422.50. The UAE issued 73,551 of them in the first half of 2026. What the counter asks for, and what it does not.
Sponsoring a visitor: the salary floors
GDRFA Dubai has set out what a UAE 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 UAE 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, which pushes back the permit UAE nationals will need for Europe. 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.
Tourist visas inside 48 hours
GDRFA confirmed a two-working-day turnaround on the 30- and 60-day single-entry UAE tourist visas it issues in Dubai. It is a processing change, not a new visa type.
Medical visas get one front door
GDRFA and the Dubai Health Authority signed an MoU on 3 June to link visa, insurance and provider systems for patients travelling to the UAE for treatment. The smart medical visa itself is still in development.
Six more nationalities can now get a visa on arrival
The ICP has added Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Kenya and South Africa to the UAE's visa-on-arrival list — and six new countries of residence. Dh100 for 14 days, Dh250 for 60.
2-year visa minimum dropped
Dubai's two-year investor visa, a UAE residence permit, has lost its Dh750,000 property minimum for sole owners — a change that appeared in the Dubai Land Department's Cube Center without a formal announcement.