all about dubai family residency visa guide family visa to dubai in 2024

Thinking about your spouse and children back home? Well, then it is now time for you to get them to Dubai with the help of a Dubai family residency visa guide for 2024. This guide by Dubai E Visa Online will walk you through the entire information you need to know to get your family settled in Dubai. If your family is already in Dubai or at home and you are planning to bring them there, Dubai E Visa Online will handle a major part of the information so that you won’t have to wander around searching for a lot of information. 

Let’s get down to some of the advantages initially as to why you would want to reconsider taking your family to Dubai!

Advantages of having your family residency in Dubai:

• A bank account in Dubai can be opened up easily without having to go through many formalities
• Getting a bank loan from any bank in Dubai can even be for personal use or for any other purpose.
• Do not require a visa to visit a lot of countries
• Be it government or private schools, your kids can attend them to get an education
• A drivers licence can be issued
• Various government health programmes and health insurance can be claimed with the help of this visa. 

But all these advantages can only be fulfilled when you actually fulfil some of the criteria that have been mentioned so that you can get the visa issued to you!

Criteria to be followed to be eligible for a Dubai family residency visa:

You should be belonging to one of the categories for you to be actually eligible for a Dubai family residency visa:

• Working plans have been made, be it under a government company or a private company in Dubai
• Your kids belong to an educational institution in Dubai.
• An investment has been made in Dubai
• A property has been purchased in Dubai
• You have made retirement plan in Dubai
• You are one of the closest family members of a citizen belonging to Dubai or you are a foreign resident.

Requirements to be fulfilled in order to get a Dubai family residency visa:

There are some documents that you must keep ready when you are going ahead to apply for a Dubai family residency visa. These documents, which you have to submit, can be given as follows:

• An online completed family residency visa application form
• A passport which has validity and belongs to you
• Having passport-sized pictures which will follow all the guidelines
• Proof of legal residence address of the person who will be your sponsor
• Having proof of medical test passing certificate
• Providing proof of family connections, such as a birth certificate for your children, a valid marriage certificate or an adoption certificate in case of adopted children
• The visa you are already in Dubai for. For example, if you are already in Dubai and are on a work visa while taking a family residency visa for your family, then you need to provide proof of a family visa. This need not be done if you are applying for a new family residency visa altogether. 

Dubai residency visa application procedure:

While it is important that you know how to fill out the application form, it is also equally important that you finish the complete procedure in the correct manner. Only then will you be able to get a visa issued to you. Not only this, if you plan on applying for the visa once you enter Dubai, you will have to get an entry permit so that you can enter Dubai and then apply for a new visa. But this will probably need a sponsor, which can be your friend, your other relatives, or your employer under whom you will be working. 

Ways to apply for a family residency visa:

You can follow any of the below-given methods to successfully apply for a Dubai residency visa:

• Applying for a family residency visa through an online portal: gdrfad gov ae
• Applying for a family residency visa through an offline method, which is through an embassy near you,
• Applying for a family residency visa once you reach Dubai on an entry permit through GDRFA, which is also known as the General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs, where you will be called in for a personal face-to-face meeting for the application procedure. 

Who can be your sponsor?

Wondering who will be your sponsor when you apply for a family residency visa? Don’t worry, as mentioned before, it can be your employer, your colleague, friends, or any other family relative. In fact, you can also be your own sponsor, provided that you have a work visa, a long-term visa, or even an Emirates ID that will let you be a part of the sponsors’ list. 

Fee for a residency visa:

As it is known, payment of fees is a must when you get an application done for a visa. Similarly,  you need to pay some specified amount of fee that will be mentioned to you when you apply for a family residency visa, be it through any of the methods available. When you apply through the official website of GDRFA, you will be required to pay a total fee of 100 AED, which will be for a one-year residency visa. The processing fee can also be varied based on the way in which you will be applying, which can range from 40 AED to 70 AED, with the former being applied when you apply for a visa through an online method and the latter for an offline method. 

Differences between an entry permit and a residency permit:

Well, just as the name suggests, this permit is given to a person when he or she wants to enter the country. A person holding an entry permit can enter Dubai based on the purpose he or she wants to fulfil. However, this entry permit must be sponsored by a person who is already a resident of Dubai or a citizen of Dubai. This entry permit is almost the same as what you need for a tourist visa. There are some who would not require it, while others can even get it applied through the visa-on arrival method. Hence, you can get the list checked to see if you require one or not and then get your entry permit applied for. The entry permit does not go up for more than three months of validity. 

Once you enter Dubai based on these documents, the sponsor will help you get a residency visa for your family. On the other hand, the family residency visa is a visa that will allow your family to get into Dubai based on this document. This visa will also help a person stay for quite a longer period of time than any other visa would normally provide. 

Length of stay on a family residency visa:

The length of your stay can depend on what your purpose is and how long you wish to stay in Dubai to fulfil your purpose. The length of stay normally has periods lasting for one year, two years, or even three years and can also be renewed or extended as per request. This family visa renewal in Dubai can be done by your sponsor if it has expired but is still valid during the visa expiry grace period. The renewal procedure will be the exact same procedure that you first did while applying for a new visa.

Grace period for visa expiry allowed:

Normally, a 30-day visa grace period is given after your visa expires. This means you can stay for the next 30 days after your visa has expired but you will be required to extend or renew your visa to be able to stay for a longer period. If this is not done, then leaving the country will be the only option left with you, and you will probably have to get another new entry permit before you re-enter the country. A fine will also be applied to you based on the length of your overstay. This fine list can be given as follows:

• Overstay for 6 months in Dubai (for the first 180 days after the grace period): 25 AED per day
• Overstay for the next six months in Dubai: 50 AED per day
• After a year of overstays in Dubai, 100 AED per day.