The golden visa is a ten-year residence visa that renews, lets you sponsor your family and doesn’t lapse if you spend more than six months abroad. We apply for around forty a year, mostly for founders and their families, and the first question is always the same: do I qualify?
The main routes
- Property investors: one or more properties in the UAE worth at least AED 2 million in total, with conditions for mortgaged and off-plan homes.
- Entrepreneurs: owners of a project that meets the approved criteria, often with a recommendation from an approved incubator or economic department.
- Skilled professionals: a monthly salary of at least AED 30,000, a bachelor’s degree, and a role at an approved occupational level.
- Specialised talent: doctors, scientists, artists, athletes, inventors and senior executives, recommended by the relevant authority.
- Outstanding students and graduates from UAE schools and universities, and from listed universities abroad.
Each route asks for its own evidence, and the authorities refine the details from time to time. We check your route against the current rules before we ask you for a single document.
Your family
A golden visa holder can sponsor a spouse and children, and in most cases parents, on visas of the same length. Domestic staff can be sponsored too. Family members keep their residency if the main holder dies, for the remaining life of their visa.
How the application works
- Eligibility check: we confirm your route and list the evidence.
- Nomination or approval by the authority for your route.
- Entry permit, or a change of status if you’re already in the UAE on another visa.
- Medical test and Emirates ID biometrics, usually one morning.
- Visa issued, linked to your Emirates ID; there is no longer a sticker in your passport.
From a complete file to an issued visa usually takes three to six weeks. Our advisory fee is AED 6,500 for the main applicant, and government fees are about AED 4,800 per person, at cost.
If you qualify and plan to stay more than two years, the golden visa is usually worth it. If you’d qualify only later, a two-year visa now is often the better first step.
When to wait
A new company doesn’t always meet the entrepreneur criteria in its first year, and a salary that will rise next year doesn’t count yet. In those cases we arrange an investor visa through your company now and plan the golden visa for when you qualify, so your family is never without status in between.
This article is general information as of August 2026. The rules change; your advisor checks the current position for you.
