Moving to the UAE With Your Family & Visas for Family

When you start a new business in a foreign country and you have a family, no wonder, that you want to bring your family with you: your spouse and your children. Since you must ensure that they would be allowed to stay with you in the UAE legally, you have to apply for their resident visas. In this chapter, we will discuss, how you can start and successfully complete the process of resident visas issuance for your family.

First of all, let’s introduce such term, as a “sponsor”. You will hear it everywhere: “you need to sponsor your family”, “your company will sponsor you”, “you need a sponsor”. We want you to understand, what exactly this means. Since the UAE’s population comprises mostly of expatriates, who come and go, it is extremely important for the local government to ensure that in case of any emergency in regards to you or anyone else in the country, there is someone, who would be responsible for resolving everything and this someone is called a sponsor. The name of the sponsor will be mentioned on your resident visa and it can be a company or an individual. Say, if you have a company and you want to recruit a sales manager, on the resident visa of this sales manager your company will be mentioned as a sponsor. If you have a family, who you want to bring in the UAE, you will be their sponsor and your personal name will be mentioned on their resident visas. As such, let’s agree, if you need to bring a family, you need to sponsor them. In case you sponsor someone as an individual, the resident visa of that sponsored person is called a dependent’s visa.

To be able to sponsor your family, first of all, you already need to hold your own UAE resident visa. There is no way to get resident visas for you and for your spouse and your kids simultaneously. First – receive your resident visa, next – apply for resident visas of your family. As such, plan everything accordingly, to avoid any potential inconveniences related to late enrollment of your kids in schools or nurseries, for example.

Additionally, there is a number of other important requirements to applications for dependent visas.

Firstly, you need to earn not less than AED 4,000, which is an equivalent of USD 1,096 or your salary shall be AED 3,000 and you shall already have an accommodation. If you are, however, an investor, you will need to prove that you are the business owner and that you have significant funds to take care of your family in the UAE. If you are wondering how one would know your salary or the scope of your wealth, here is the reply: you will need to provide a valid bank statement.

Secondly, you would need to rent an apartment, as part of the requirements is to provide Ejari Certificate or a registered tenancy contract, stating your name, at the time of application submission. Therefore, as soon as you have your resident visa issued, proceed with the apartment rent, so that you could immediately apply for the resident visas of your family, once the tenancy contract is signed and registered.

Thirdly, to sponsor your spouse and your children, you would also need to prove your family ties. Documents proving such ties are marriage certificate and a birth certificate. Please note that for the UAE authorities to accept these documents, documents need to be legalized. Legalization involves attestation of copies of both documents by the notary in the home country, translation into Arabic, attestation by the authority, which issued documents, next follows attestation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the home country, then you have to approach the UAE Embassy in the home country and finally the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the UAE. We know, how time consuming this process is and how difficult it is to complete it, if you are not residing in your home country at the moment. Therefore, our advice is to take care of the documents far in advance, so that you have everything in place, as soon as you come to the UAE.

Fourthly, to sponsor your husband, for example, you would be requested to pay a deposit of up to AED 5,000, which is refundable, once issued resident visa of dependent is cancelled.

The four requirements we just mentioned, are the major ones and can be taken care of in advance.

In this chapter, we will not be providing exact charges of immigration authorities for dependent visas, as they vary from emirate to emirate and can be amended from time time. However, in general, you would be looking at approximately AED 2,000 to AED 5,000 per person.

As far as the process of resident visa application for dependents is concerned, there is no difference whatsoever, from the resident visa process of yours as an investor. Once all relevant documents are submitted and the application for dependent’s visa is approved, the Entry Permit is issued. Entry Permit, as in case with your investor resident visa, you either use to enter the country or you change the status inside the country from the previous visa, which can be a tourist, visit or previous employment visa so far. Once you come to the UAE or your visa status has been changed, you type relevant forms and proceed with medical test and bio-metrics capturing. And before you submit all the documents for processing of visa stamping, you do not forget to arrange for a health insurance.

In general, visa stamping process takes place on the same day, when your application for dependent’s visa is submitted. Sometimes, if you go through the dependent visa process with the help of the free zone, it may take a little longer and can require two to five days.

In any event, now you definitely know much more about dependent visas and you will feel much more confident, once you start applying for resident visas of your family. And you even know, what you can do first, before you leave your home country. We urge you not to underestimate the importance of having all necessary personal documents legalized and translated into Arabic in advance.

If you want to know more about Dubai freezone company formation, feel free to get in touch with our professional consultant team and we would be delighted to assist you and help you to compare Dubai freezone company setup costs and help you to find that free zone, which would suit your business needs the most.

Disclaimer: Business Boutique UAE-Consultants.com is not affiliated with any particular government or legal entity. Business Boutique does not give professional legal advice nor any other professional advice subject to a public office in the government. This article merely sets out a simple and basic idea as to the reasons of Dubai freezone company setup and Dubai free zone company formation cost. Business Boutique in no way holds nor imposes any official governmental or legal authority and the article herein is only to be taken as a guide. All further governmental or legal issues should be addressed to the corresponding authorities.

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