Director and executive visas
Five markets read a director's file five different ways: two by monthly pay, one by annual pay, one by shareholding, one by the work itself. We start by choosing between them.
Emirates line
Порог в ОАЭ
AED 30,000 monthly
30 000 AED в месяц
Qatar upper line
Верхний в Катаре
QAR 80,000 monthly
80 000 QAR в месяц
Saudi line
Порог в Саудовской
SAR 960,000 yearly
960 000 SAR в год
Hong Kong line
Порог в Гонконге
none published
не опубликован
When a director needs their own visa
You signed for a company abroad
A licence or a register can name you as the person in charge while your own status is a visitor's. Governing a company and being admitted to the country are separate decisions.
The same title is priced differently
One market asks thirty thousand a month, another nine hundred and sixty thousand a year, a third asks nothing about pay at all. The job has not changed; the test has.
Some routes read ownership instead
Where a threshold reads your shareholding rather than your salary, a well-paid employee can fail it and a modestly paid founder can pass. Which of you is filing matters first.
Moving jobs is not equally free
In some of these markets a change of employer needs permission before it happens. In others the status stopped depending on an employer the day it was granted.
The long statuses expire differently
Ten years, five years, a term you choose, or a stay measured against your contract. The renewal calendar divides these markets more than the headline length.
What you get
- The market chosen before the paperwork starts
- Your title and pay tested against each published rule
- A straight answer where the route is shut today
- Job-change and renewal rules set out per country
- One plan when the family moves with you
How the five markets differ
Nowhere is there a permit called a director visa. Each market has instead a category a senior officer can reach, and the categories rest on different facts. Choosing between them is most of the work, and it happens before a single document is collected.
What each market actually tests
Two of the five read a monthly salary. One reads the yearly total, which changes the answer for anyone whose package leans on an annual bonus. One reads the value of your stake. And one publishes no figure at all, asking instead what you will do on arrival and what the business will contribute.
The second dividing line is what happens afterwards. A status granted on a salary can be withdrawn when the salary falls. One granted for a term you paid for is yours until the term runs out. One tied to an employment condition turns a change of employer into an application.
| Market | What sets the threshold | Term |
|---|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | AED 30,000 a month | 10 years |
| Qatar | QAR 50,000 or 80,000 by title | up to 10 years |
| Saudi Arabia | SAR 960,000 a year | 5 years, renewable |
| Bahrain | BHD 100,000 shareholding | 2, 5 or 10 years |
| Hong Kong | no published figure | 36 months, then 3 and 2 |
The Emirates figure is monthly and the Saudi figure annual, so the printed numbers cannot be lined up as they stand: thirty thousand a month is three hundred and sixty thousand a year. Convert first, then compare — and remember that three different currencies are still three different currencies.
Where we do this
United Arab Emirates
The long status names chairpersons and chief executives through the labour ministry's occupational classification, and the permit is cancelled if the salary later drops below the line that granted it.
Qatar
The only market of the five that prices by the exact job title, and the only one that also limits which kinds of company may employ you on the route.
Saudi Arabia
Executives appear in the definition of the category itself. Thirty months of residence, a kept contract and a priority field convert the five-year status into a permanent one.
Bahrain
Two authorities rather than one: a work permit tied to an occupation, and a residence permit a shareholder sponsors for himself. An investor who is also a partner needs no work permit at all.
Hong Kong
No salary threshold and no category named after the office. The department asks whether the role is real and, for a founder, what the business will actually contribute.
Sources: occupational classification and salary condition — the Emirates identity authority; salary by title and accepted employers — Qatar's residency programme; wage floor and the thirty-month count — the Saudi premium residency centre; shareholding and two authorities — Bahrain's residence authority and its labour authority; stay and extensions — the Hong Kong Immigration Department.
Stages of work
Choosing the market first.
Where the company sits, where you will live and where the payroll runs can point at three different countries. Until that is settled, every threshold below is measured against the wrong rule.
Testing the person against each rule.
Your title, your pay read both monthly and annually, and your shareholding go against all five published tests at once. Usually two fall away at once, before anybody pays a fee.
Reading the employer, not only the applicant.
Several routes examine the company as closely as the person: its registration, its classification, in one market whether it belongs to a permitted category at all. We check that before the personal file opens.
Sequencing the evidence by shelf life.
Degrees need recognition, experience letters attestation, bank statements cover fixed windows. We start with whichever item in your country takes longest: that one sets the real date.
Filing where the route lives.
Each market has its own counter, its own order of steps and, in two of them, a payment window that voids approval if missed. We file, then watch the clocks that follow.
Job changes, renewals and the family.
You get in writing what a change of employer does to the status in your country, what the authority looks at again at renewal, and how the family's dates are tied to yours.
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