Director and executive visas in five markets
We will establish which of the five jurisdictions your file actually belongs to, put your title and salary against its published figures, and assemble the evidence that authority names.
Emirates salary line
Порог в Эмиратах
from AED 50,000
от 50 000 дирхамов
Qatar salary line
Порог в Катаре
QAR 50,000 a month
50 000 риалов
Senior experience
Стаж в управлении
5 years
5 лет
Hong Kong first stay
Гонконг, первый срок
36 months
36 месяцев
When a director needs their own visa
You signed for a company abroad
A licence can name you as the manager while your own status is still a visitor's. The signature and the residence are two separate filings.
Five countries, five different tests
The same job title is read differently in each of them. A salary that clears one published threshold can sit below the floor of the next.
Your job title decides the threshold
Chief executive and executive director are priced apart in at least one of these systems. The words on the contract do real work here.
You may change employer later
Some of these statuses travel with you and some need permission before you move. That difference is worth knowing before the first filing instead of after it.
Your family comes with the role
Dependants ride on your status in all five. Where the rules tie their stay to yours, one date ends up governing the whole household.
What you get
- The country tested first
- Your title against thresholds
- The evidence each one asks
- Job-change rules named
- One plan for the family
What each country asks a director
A director's route is decided by the country before it is decided by the person. Two of these five read a salary figure off the contract. One reads the length of the contract itself. One publishes a residence law that spells out what the status lets the holder do. And one runs the whole thing as a named programme with its own service counter.
This page stays at the level of the route. The mechanics of a residence permit and its card are set out on residence and the Emirates ID; where the entity still has to be incorporated, the starting point is company registration.
| The country | What decides the route |
|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | a salary from AED 50,000 |
| Qatar | a salary from QAR 50,000 |
| Bahrain | a basic salary above BHD 2,000 |
| Saudi Arabia | the premium residency law |
| Hong Kong | the length of the contract |
Country by country
United Arab Emirates
The long talent route carries a line for executive directors, and it is entirely documentary: a certified university degree, an experience certificate covering at least five years, an employment contract and a salary certificate showing no less than AED 50,000.
Qatar
The published executive stream sets the salary by title — QAR 50,000 a month for a chairman or a chief executive, operating, technology or financial officer, and QAR 80,000 for other executive director titles — alongside five years in senior executive management. It offers up to ten years, renewable, with no sponsor.
Bahrain
A golden residency runs through the nationality, passports and residence authority, and the route for someone already employed there asks for at least five years of work in the country and an average basic salary above BHD 2,000 a month over those five years, insured with the social insurance organisation on that amount for the whole period. Only the basic salary counts: bonuses and allowances are excluded from the calculation.
Saudi Arabia
The premium residency law comes in a permanent and a fixed-term form and states the rights directly: employment in the private sector, the ability to change jobs inside it, and leaving and entering without a visa. The application asks for financial solvency, a clear criminal record and a medical report no older than six months.
Hong Kong
Employment as a professional is quota-free, and a first stay is normally 36 months or the length of the employment contract, whichever is shorter, with extensions on a three-then-two pattern. Someone admitted on an employment condition needs approval before changing employer.
Sources: Golden Residency Guide; Residency Program (Invest Qatar); Golden Residency eligibility criteria; Premium Residency Permit Law; General Employment Policy (Immigration Department).
Stages of work
The country decided first.
Where the entity sits, where the person will actually live and where the payroll runs can point at three different jurisdictions. We will settle that before any threshold.
The title against the threshold.
We will put the words on your contract next to the published figures and say plainly whether the route is open, borderline or shut for the person as described today.
The company's own papers.
Several of these routes read the employer as much as the person: the licence, the classification of the company, the signing authority. Those are checked before filing.
Evidence assembled per country.
Degrees are certified, experience is documented year by year, salary is evidenced by the document each authority names. Foreign papers go through legalisation first.
Filing where the route lives.
Each of the five has its own counter, its own forms and its own order of steps. We will file there and deal with the queries that come back.
Job changes and renewals.
You will get, in writing, what a change of employer does to the status in your country, and what the authority will look at again when the term ends.
Our wider practice for people crossing borders sits under Immigration & Visas.
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