Residency routes tied to a property purchase, and company setup for buyers who need a corporate vehicle or a base here.
Residency follows the purchase. The order matters.
A Dubai property can carry a residency visa with it, and a company can hold the property. Both are ordinary, and both go wrong when they are arranged in the wrong sequence. We are not immigration advisers and we do not register companies. We know the order, and we introduce the people who are licensed to do the work.
The property investor visa
The common route for a buyer is the two-year property investor visa, granted against a completed property held in your name and renewable while you still own it. It can cover a spouse and children as dependants. It is tied to the property, so selling the home ends the visa that came with it.
The value threshold, the treatment of mortgaged and off-plan units, and the position on jointly owned property are confirmed case by case against the rules in force on the day you apply. We will not quote you a figure from memory, and you should be wary of anyone who does.
The Golden Visa
Above a higher property value, the ten-year Golden Visa applies instead. It renews on the same basis, needs no employer or sponsor behind it, and is the reason some buyers put the whole budget into one home rather than splitting it across two smaller units.
It is not a reason to overpay. If the strongest argument for a property is the visa attached to it, you are buying the wrong property, and we will say that before the offer goes in rather than after the transfer.
Company formation, and when a buyer needs one
Two routes exist and they are not interchangeable. A free-zone licence gives you a company, a registered address and employee visas inside a defined zone, and it suits consultants, holding structures and businesses that trade outside the UAE. A mainland licence lets you trade with the UAE market directly, which is what an operating business here usually needs.
Most private buyers need neither. A company means a licence to renew every year, accounts to keep, and a bank account that takes considerably longer to open than a personal one. We will ask what problem the company is solving, and if the answer is that somebody said it was better for tax, we will send you to an adviser before anything is registered.
What we do and what we do not
We hold the sequence and the calendar. Which step has to happen before which, what the purchase has to look like before an application can be made, when the Emirates ID has to exist, and where a bank account will block everything queued behind it.
We do not file applications, give immigration advice or register companies. Licensed specialists do that, we introduce you to them, and you agree scope and fees with them directly. An estate agent with an opinion about your residency status is worth what you paid for it.
Visa, immigration, legal, company formation and mortgage matters are handled by appropriately qualified third-party specialists. Final scope and provider terms are agreed separately.
How it works
- You tell us what you are buyingThe property, the passports involved, and whether anyone is moving with you.
- We match the purchase to a residency routeCompleted or off-plan, mortgaged or not, one owner or several: each of those changes which route is open.
- We introduce the licensed specialistApplications, immigration advice and company registration are done by people who hold the licence to do them.
- We sequence it around the transferThe title deed has to exist before most of this can begin, so the residency work is planned against the transfer date.
- We stay on the calendar until the Emirates ID is issuedThe medical, the biometrics and the ID are the steps that slip, and somebody has to be chasing them.
02 / Before you ask us
The questionsthat come up first.
Does buying a property get me residency automatically?
No. A completed property above the current value threshold opens an application, and the application still has to be made, with a medical, biometrics and an Emirates ID at the end of it. The threshold and the treatment of mortgaged or off-plan units are confirmed case by case.
Do I need a company to buy property in Dubai?
Usually not. Most private buyers hold property in their own name. A company means a licence to renew every year and a bank account that takes longer to open, so we ask what problem it solves before anyone registers one.
Do you handle the visa application yourselves?
No. Visa, immigration, legal and company formation matters go to licensed specialists we introduce you to. What we do is hold the sequence, so the residency work lines up with the property transfer instead of starting after it.
03 / Talk to us about this
Tell us what you are buying and who is coming.
The purchase, the passports involved, and whether a company is in the picture. We will tell you which route applies and introduce the specialist who handles it.