UAE Golden Visa for programmers

“Golden Visa” is a common term for a long-term residence visa that enables foreign talents to live and develop in the UAE.

It is valid for 5 or 10 years, allowing you to stay outside the UAE for more than 6 months and keeping the visa valid. You can get this type of visa without a sponsor, and at the same time, you can be a sponsor for your family members, a spouse and children, and domestic helpers.

The main alternative to the IT Golden Visa is the investor’s Golden Visa. You can get a residency visa if you invest at least AED 750,000 in the country’s economy. The visa is valid for 2 to 10 years.

There are several reasons why the UAE is so attractive for IT specialists. Let’s consider why the UAE attracts IT professionals from all over the world — and what drawbacks this type of visa has.

How to move to the UAE as an Indian citizen?

1. The UAE works intensively on artificial intelligence. The UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence aims to bring the country to the leading position in AI in the world and looks like a roadmap with very detailed steps to take. The first step is “To Build a reputation as an AI destination”. So, to work on such a novel technology as AI and become a part of the future is not a bad prospect for a programmer.

The UAE is considered a perfect destination for specialists under 35 to accelerate their careers and boost their income by more than half.

2. Commonly-spoken English. Although Arabic is an official language in the UAE, in the country, whose population consists of 85% expats, English has become lingua franca — a language that is used by people of different nationalities to communicate.

3. Networking for the IT community. UAE is in first place in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, so it leads by such criteria as level of business development, financial infrastructure, government business support, and ease of starting a business. There is UAE PASS for citizens and residents of UAE, which gives access to online services in the country. There are offices of Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP, Meta, Google, Guardian Wealth Management, and Telegram in the UAE.

4. Creating a “safe haven”. A Golden Visa holder and his family seize the opportunity to move to the UAE, one of the most affluent countries in the world with a GDP of 503 billion dollars.

5. No sponsors are needed. To obtain a Golden Visa, one doesn’t need sponsors, which means that the residency is not tied to one’s employer and offers stability for those who want to stay in the UAE for a long time.

6. The resident is able to be a sponsor. A Golden Visa holder can sponsor their family members, including parents, and an unlimited number of domestic members. Thus, an applicant’s extended family can also obtain permanent residency in the UAE.

7. Business-friendly government policy and tax-free salaries. The UAE’s residents pay neither income taxes nor property taxes. Up until June 2023, there was not even corporate tax in the UAE. Even though the corporate tax was issued by the UAE’s Ministry of Finance, it is still lower than in many developed countries: 9% for those corporations whose annual income is more than AED 356,000, that equals to $ 102,000.

There is one more tax benefit that attracts IT specialists and people of other professions to the Emirates: the country has signed a double tax avoidance agreement with 142 states by June 2023 and is still negotiating about signing this agreement with more countries.

8. Opening a bank account. This bank account may be opened in any currency and is suitable for savings and international transactions.

9. Access to education and healthcare. The UAE is one of the most popular medical tourism destinations. Residency visa holders buy health insurance, which provides access to medical treatment in public and private clinics in the country. In the World Index of Healthcare Innovation, the UAE occupies 19th place. What’s more, the Emirates have done the best job to avoid COVID‑19 fatalities during the Pandemic.

Resident’s children can attend kindergartens, schools, and universities in the UAE. There are 11 UAE universities in the QS ratings. 3 of them are in Top‑500.

10. Esaad Privilege Card. If you have obtained a Golden Visa for 5 or 10 years, you will become a participant in a special program that provides exclusive bonuses and discounts up to 70% in shops, clinics, service companies, and other sectors. Exclusive offers are available at 7,237 brands in 92 countries.

11. A driver’s licence. To drive a car in the UAE, a resident has to take an exam, but for the citizens of some countries, driving licences are convertible. 5 GCC countries, 34 European countries, the USA and Canada, and some countries of Asia, Africa, and Oceania are among them.

12. An opportunity to get UAE citizenship.. It is a well-known fact that it is difficult to obtain UAE citizenship. However, it is possible. Firstly, residents may apply for citizenship by naturalisation after living in the country for 30 years. Secondly, it is possible to be granted citizenship for exceptional services.

The UAE passport allows you to visit 176 countries visa-free, including the Schengen states, the UK, and Canada.

Even though the benefits of the Golden visa outweigh the drawbacks, there are still two of them.

1. No freedom to travel. In contrast with the Golden Visa by investment, which gives its holder and his family freedom to come and leave the country any time they want to, the Golden Visa for IT specialists will be automatically nullified if its holder lives outside the UAE for more than 180 days.

2. The application is quite costly. The cost for an applicant for a Golden Visa for IT is about AED 4000 per capita, which is approximately $1,000. However, you have to pay this fee just once for ten years of permanent residence, which makes it not so expensive. Still, to this sum, one has to add up the price of a medical checkup, health insurance, and document translation, which will be around $1,500.

Specialists in the following fields are eligible to apply for the IT Golden Visa in the UAE:

• artificial intelligence;

• big data;

• computer engineering;

• electronic engineering;

• software engineering;

• electrical engineering;

• genetics and biotechnology engineering.

When you apply for this type of visa, you need to prove your degree — a Bachelor’s or Master’s one. There are different situations in different countries, but from 20% to 66% of professional programmers have no suitable college degree. There are also cases when people don’t want to be dependent on their employer.

If that is your case, you can use an alternative route and get a residency through the Investors Golden Visa.

If you apply for the Golden Visa as an IT specialist, you need to provide a copy of a Bachelor’s or a Master’s degree certified by the Ministry of Education and a work contract.

The full list of documents for a coder visa in the UAE:

• a copy of passport;

• work contract valid in the country;

• a salary certificate with a monthly salary not less than AED 30,000;

• a licence to practise the profession, for professions that require this;

• a certificate of educational attainment, not less than a bachelor’s degree;

• a bank account statement showing bank salary transfers for the last 6 months.

The applicant for a Golden Visa also has to pay the following fees:

• residence permit fee — AED 1,100;

• knowledge dirham — AED 10;

• innovation dirham — AED 10;

• fees inside the country — AED 500;

• delivery — AED 20.

Firstly, the applicant must choose an emirate to apply for the golden residency. The application processes are different in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Dubai. There are several options to apply for the Golden Visa in Dubai: through digital channels, visiting the Customer Happiness Center, and in Amer Service Center.

If you prefer to apply at a Customer Happiness Service or Amer Service Center, you have to go to the nearest one, submit the application that fulfils all conditions and documents to the customer service employee, and pay fees.

Abu Dhabi. To apply for a Golden Visa in Abu Dhabi, you have to already be in the country after entering the UAE on an Entry or a Tourist Visa. There are 69 countries whose citizens don’t need to apply for an Entry or Tourist Visa before arriving and can get a visa on arrival.

In Abu Dhabi, before applying for a Golden Visa, you have to submit the request for Golden Visa nomination through the digital channel. It will take up to 7 days. The nomination request for the Golden Residence in Abu Dhabi is free of charge.

After approval, you will be guided to finalise your application with the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs, and Port Security (ICP).

To get the Golden Visa permit in Abu Dhabi as a talent for digital technology, you need a recommendation from the Emirates Council for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transactions or a local Competent Authority. To meet the requirements for skilled professionals, you have to hold a role classified by The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation at a level not lower than 2. The rest of the requirements are the same as those in Dubai.

If a person cannot fulfil the listed requirements, there is an alternative route to becoming a UAE resident and joining the IT-community there — the UAE Golden Visa by investment.

1. The UAE is a proper destination for IT specialists who want to boost their income and accelerate their careers.

2. There is a specific list of specialists eligible to apply for an IT Golden visa. You have to present your bachelor’s or master’s degree in a suitable field to be considered.

3. To maintain your Golden visa, you have to spend no less than 180 days a year in the UAE.

4. Golden Visa for IT specialists is not the only option to obtain a residence permit in the UAE. The alternative to the Golden Visa for IT is the Golden Visa by Investment.