Sponsoring your spouse for a UAE residence visa

The ICP card puts it in one sentence: "The foreign sponsor (resident in the UAE) may bring in his/her spouse, unmarried daughters, sons under 25 years old, and children with special needs." u.ae adds that employees can sponsor their families "regardless of their job titles" once the income condition is met. Green residence holders may sponsor first-degree relatives; Golden Visa holders may sponsor a spouse and children. A UAE citizen's foreign spouse receives a five-year residence without needing to work.

The wording is "his/her", so a resident wife can sponsor a husband on the same conditions. The pages we read state no additional income condition for female sponsors.

1. Attest the marriage contract before anything else; it is the proof of kinship the card requires.
2. Apply for the entry permit through ICP smart services or GDRFA Dubai (AED 200 plus VAT in Dubai). If your spouse is already in the UAE on a visit visa, use the change-of-status request (ICP AED 500) instead of an exit.
3. Spouse enters; residence must be completed within 60 days.
4. Medical fitness test at an approved centre.
5. Emirates ID biometrics.
6. Residence permit stamped, expiring no later than yours. ICP states 2 days for the permit step.

ICP: application AED 100; issuance AED 100 per year; smart service AED 100; financial-security deposit fee AED 20; change of status AED 500 if applicable. GDRFA Dubai family entry permit: AED 200 plus VAT, with AED 10 Knowledge Dirham and AED 10 Innovation Dirham on Dubai cards and AED 500 when applying from inside the country. Medical, Emirates ID and insurance are separate.

If your own residence is cancelled, your spouse's must be cancelled too, and u.ae gives dependants six months from expiry or cancellation to obtain a new permit. You must cancel your dependants' visas before your own. The general-provisions page describes a specific protection: a divorced or widowed woman may obtain a one-year extension from the date of divorce or death, "renewable for one time only and does not require a substitute sponsor", with children included if they were on the father's visa. The pages we read do not describe an equivalent provision for a sponsored husband.

Send us your residence type, emirate, salary and housing arrangement, and where the marriage was registered. We will say whether the official conditions are met and what the attestation route looks like from that country. To sponsor children at the same time, read sponsoring children.