UAE Golden Visa application process: inside the UAE, from abroad, Dubai and the other emirates

Three things decide how your application runs: which category you apply under, which authority holds your file, and where you are when you apply. Settle all three first. The category determines the evidence (see requirements and documents). The authority is ICP for six emirates and GDRFA Dubai for Dubai. Your location determines whether you enter on a permit and complete inside the country, or change status from an existing residence.

If you already hold a UAE residence, note the ICP card's change-of-status mechanism: a request inside the country for AED 500, after the previous residence is cancelled and the new visa issued, so that you complete the residency without leaving. If you sponsor family on your current residence, sequence the cancellations so that their residencies are not left without a sponsor.

1. Eligibility check. Run the ICP smart services eligibility check with UAE Pass. Keep the result.
2. Collect the category evidence. The letter or certificate the ICP guide names for your category, plus passport and photograph.
3. Nomination request. ICP lists a nomination request for Golden Residence service. Submit through the Golden visa dashboard.
4. Cancellation and status change, if you hold a residence. Cancel the existing residence (the employer does this for an employment residence, after cancelling the work permit with MOHRE) and file the status-adjustment request for AED 500.
5. Medical fitness. At an approved centre, for applicants aged 18 and over.
6. Emirates ID. Application and biometrics; residence issuance is linked to the Emirates ID application.
7. Residence issuance. The ICP card gives a service completion duration of 2 days for this step. Fee lines: application AED 100, issuance AED 100 per year, smart service AED 100.
8. Family. Apply for spouse and children once your own residence is issued.

1. Golden visa services. Use the GDRFA Dubai Golden visa services online, through the GDRFA app, Dubai Now, or an Amer service centre.
2. Nomination and verification. GDRFA publishes a Golden Visa Appointment service: "Golden visa applicant can schedule an appointment for visiting GDRFAD office for verification". Bring originals.
3. Entry permit or status change. If you are inside the UAE on another status, GDRFA cards for other residence types apply an inside-country fee of AED 500; we could not find a Golden-specific card stating this, so confirm at the Amer centre.
4. Medical fitness and Emirates ID. As for route 1, at Dubai Health Authority centres.
5. Residence issuance. The GDRFA note we found states, for a five-year Golden residency, residence fees of AED 2,280 and an identity card fee of AED 575. The note appears on the retired-foreigner card; a Golden-specific fee card was not found.
6. Renewal later. GDRFA publishes separate renewal cards by Golden category: entrepreneurs, talents, top students and graduates, humanitarian pioneers and frontline.

Neither u.ae nor the ICP guide describes an outside-UAE procedure in steps. What ICP does publish is the mechanism: a service to "issue multiple entry permit to finalize the procedures of the Golden Residency" on the older ICP Golden Residence page, and on the visa-extension card the rule that "the 6-month multiple-entry permit for completing Golden or Blue Residence procedures may be extended once for an equivalent period only", with an extension fee of AED 1,000 plus the AED 100 application fee. Read together with the nomination service, the route is:

1. Nomination or eligibility from abroad through ICP smart services with UAE Pass, or through GDRFA Dubai for a Dubai file.
2. Six-month multiple-entry permit issued to finalise the Golden Residency.
3. Enter the UAE and complete medical fitness, Emirates ID and residence issuance. The ICP card requires completion within 60 days of entry; overstaying attracts a fine of AED 50 per day.
4. If you need longer, the permit can be extended once for a further six months.

The Golden Visa pages on u.ae and ICP do not state a processing time. The only official figure is the ICP residence card's 2-day service completion duration, which covers the residence-permit issuance step alone. Verification appointments, the gatekeeping ministry's letter, medical results and Emirates ID printing add time the pages do not quantify. Any total you see on a private website is that site's estimate.

Confirm your category on the eligibility page, assemble the file from requirements and documents, and if you would like a consultant to sequence the cancellations, permits and appointments for you, use the form below.