The UAE Golden Visa is a long-term residence visa — currently ten years, renewable — available on several grounds, one of which is property ownership. It has become one of the most common reasons international buyers give for looking at Dubai, and one of the most common reasons they buy the wrong property. This article sets out the criteria as we currently understand them, with the caveat that they are set by the immigration authorities, have been revised more than once, and should be confirmed with GDRFA before any purchase is structured around them.
The value threshold
Property with a registered value of AED 2 million or more currently supports an application for the ten-year visa. The value is the one on the Land Department registration — the title deed or the Oqood certificate — not the asking price and not a valuation. Applications based on more than one property have been accepted where the combined registered value meets the threshold, though the treatment has varied.
A separate, shorter property-owner residence visa — currently two years — applies from a registered value of AED 750,000, with its own conditions. It is a different product with a different renewal cycle and is sometimes confused with the Golden Visa in marketing.
Ownership
The property must be held in the applicant's name. Joint ownership with a spouse is generally accepted with an attested marriage certificate; other joint arrangements have required each owner's share to meet the threshold, or a no-objection letter from the co-owner, depending on the case. Property held through a company has additional conditions. If you intend to buy jointly, say so before the purchase is structured, not after.
Off-plan and mortgaged property
Earlier versions of the rules required completed, unencumbered property. Recent revisions have allowed off-plan purchases from approved developers and mortgaged property to be considered, subject to conditions — typically on the developer, on the amount paid in, and on a letter from the bank. Because these details have moved more than once, we check them with the authority at the time of each client's purchase rather than repeating what applied last year, and we suggest you do the same.
The visa is a good reason to buy in Dubai. It is a bad reason to buy a particular property.
What the visa gives you, and what it does not
It gives long-term residence for you and, under the current rules, your spouse and children, without a sponsor and without the requirement to be in the country for a minimum period each year that applies to ordinary residence visas. It allows you to open a resident bank account and obtain an Emirates ID. It does not by itself change your tax residence in your home country — that is determined by your home country's rules — and it does not oblige you to live in Dubai.
The mistake we see most
A buyer who needs AED 2 million of registered value buys a AED 2.05 million apartment they would not otherwise have chosen, in a building whose service charges and resale prospects they did not check, because the number was right. Two years later the visa is in the passport and the apartment is the problem. The visa should be a consequence of a purchase that stands on its own: if the shortlist that fits your objective also clears the threshold, that is a good outcome; if it does not, we will say so, and there are other routes to the visa.
Process, in outline
The application is made through the Dubai Land Department's channels — its Cube centre and the Amer centres — with the title deed or Oqood certificate, passport, photographs, medical fitness and insurance, and the fees. It typically completes in a few weeks once the property is registered. Our golden-visa checker on this site tells you whether a set of inputs meets the published thresholds as we currently understand them, and which conditions apply; it does not tell you that a visa will be granted, because only the authority can.