| Kippreport.com

Property visa mainly for politicians or businessmen

May 5, 2009 12:30 by Aarti Nagraj

The UAE government has clarified that the new property visa is not for anybody and everybody. “It is not meant for people who want to invest or work here; such people could gain residency through other types of visas,” said brigadier general Nasser Al Minhali, acting director of the Department of Naturalisation and Residency.

“Applicants for [the six-month] visas could be politicians or businessmen who wish to have a place in the UAE to live in and they cannot leave their businesses in their home countries and stay in the UAE the whole time. So rather than applying for a visa every time they come in, they have the option of the six months renewable visa,” he said.

Interestingly, the UAE’s Ministry of Interior released a statement two days ago saying “The ruling is for the good of those expatriates who have found an oasis of peace and stability in the UAE, and decided as a result to own real estate in the country. Because the ruling is also considerate of family stability and relations, it affords the owner’s wife and children the same residency privileges.”

The UAE government announced this week that visas for property owners who meet the government’s criteria will be issued from June 1.

The requirements are: the price of the property has to be AED1 million; the property has to be in the form of a house or an apartment, not empty land; homeowner should earn AED10,000 a month or its equivalent in foreign currency; and he or she has to be the sole owner of the house. The homeowner also has to leave the UAE every six months, and pay AED2,000 to renew the visa.

Tags: businessmen, investors, law, politicians, property visa, Real estate, requirement, UAE