UAE Residence Visa - What You Need To Know About This Highly Demanded Visa

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the home to world’s largest expat community. From enticing employment opportunities and salary packages to social security, the country offers everything an expat requires to survive in a foreign country. Moving to the UAE for expats is easy, as long as they meet the requirements for the UAE residence visa. To facilitate the UAE visa procedure for the expats, the government of the UAE unveiled the UAE Vision system, which allows the expats to apply for all kinds of visa and residency related transactions through typing service centers approved by the government. This initiative of the UAE government eliminated the need of visiting the GDRFA headquarters or their branches for visa related needs. Now, let’s discuss the UAE residence visa in detail.

A residence visa is issued to a foreign national who intended to stay in the UAE for a longer period of time. Although, the expatriate requires a sponsor for sponsoring his visa, and he/she should also meet the requirements of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA). The validity of residence visa depends upon the sponsor.

The other requirements of UAE residence visa are:

• Monthly salary of AED 3000 + accommodations or AED 4000, if an expat employee is sponsoring the residence visa of his family, i.e., kids and spouse.

• Documents such as marriage certificate, birth certificate, salary certificate, and employment contract are required to be submitted at the concerned authorities for processing the visa application for a residence visa. All the foreign documents must be attested before presenting to the authorities in the UAE. Marriage certificate and birth certificate attestation for UAE residence visa is compulsory.

• The applicants for UAE residence visa must go through a medical examination for HIV and pulmonary tuberculosis in the UAE. Applicants suffering from these diseases will be considered medically unfit for the visa and will not be granted the residence visa.

Important notice issued by the UAE government regarding UAE Residence visa

• The expats are required to carry the residence permit with them all the time and must be produced whenever asked by the concerned authorities. A UAE residence visa is required to be presented while leaving and then entering into the country.

• The UAE resident visa holder if stays outside the UAE continuously for 6 months, then the UAE residence visa will be nullified automatically. Afterwards, the applicant is required to apply for a new entry permit to enter with the UAE. Although the expatriate spouse of an Emirati citizen, expatriate government employee for medical purpose, and expatriate student studying in the country are exempted from this rule.

Role of documentation in acquiring the UAE residence visa

Leaving your home country with an aim of living and settling in a foreign country is a blissful as well as nerve wracking experience for all the expats. Still, expats leave their country for a fresh start and giving a boost to their career. But residing in a foreign country is not as easy as it sounds. Acquiring a visa is one of the toughest work one has to do. Applicants will only receive a visa once they complete the documentation formalities. Marriage certificate, degree certificate, birth certificate and etc. are some of the important documents required for acquiring a visa as well as for other purposes abroad. A document will only be considered valid in a foreign country, if it is attested by the required authorities.

MOFA, UAE attestation is requisite on all the documents that are going to be used in UAE. However, if you are residing in UAE and wondering about attesting your documents from the UAE itself, then you can simply hire an attestation expert. Attesting all your documents by yourself after travelling all the way back to India can be tiresome. For a hassle free procedure, you can hire an attestation agency in the UAE and they will attest your documents from the required agencies on your behalf. Although, attestation is a complicated procedure and that’s why you are advised to hire an authorized expert for genuine and assured work.