UAE family visa: sponsoring your household
We will name the people you are entitled to sponsor, check the income test the rules actually apply, and bring the permits of the whole household onto one set of dates.
Sponsor's salary
Зарплата спонсора
AED 4,000 a month
4 000 в месяц
With housing
С жильём от компании
AED 3,000 a month
3 000 в месяц
Sons up to
Сыновья до
25 years old
25 лет
Grace for family
Льготный срок
6 months
6 месяцев
When you need a family visa
Your family is still abroad
Your own permit carries nobody else. Every member of the household needs a separate file, a separate medical and a separate card of their own.
A child has turned eighteen
Age changes the paperwork. From eighteen a dependant sits the medical fitness test, and a son's stay has an end date the household should know well in advance.
You are changing employers
The permits of your family hang on yours. A gap between contracts stops being your own problem: the household's expiry dates move together with yours.
Someone was widowed or divorced
The rules keep a woman and her children in the country for a further year without a substitute sponsor, and the conditions attached to that year are precise.
Renewal dates fell out of line
A dependant's permit cannot outlast the sponsor's, so a household holding four cards still runs on one date. Missing it costs a fine on top of the delay.
What you get
- Who you may sponsor
- The income test checked
- Documents attested in time
- All permits on one date
- A clean cancellation order
What sponsoring a family requires
A family visa is a set of permits, each issued to a person and each tied back to the resident who sponsors it. The government portal is explicit about the dependency: the expiry date of a dependant's residence will not exceed the sponsor's, and if the sponsor's own permit is cancelled, the dependants' permits must be cancelled as well.
That makes the sponsor's own status the first question on the list. Where the resident's own permit and card are what needs sorting, that is residence and the Emirates ID. Where the sponsor holds an employer's permit, see work and freelance routes.
Who may be sponsored
An expatriate resident may bring in a spouse, unmarried daughters, sons under twenty-five and children with special needs. Holders of green residence may sponsor first-degree relatives. A citizen's foreign spouse, parent or child is a separate case: they receive five years without having to work, and the citizen is the sponsor.
The income the rule reads
The sponsor needs a minimum salary of AED 4,000, or AED 3,000 where the employer provides accommodation. The portal states plainly that a job title no longer decides the question — the income does — and marks that as a change from how the rule worked before.
| What is being tested | What the portal states |
|---|---|
| Sponsor's salary | AED 4,000 a month |
| Salary with accommodation | AED 3,000 a month |
| Sons | under 25 years old |
| Daughters | unmarried |
| Medical fitness | from age 18 |
| A dependant's expiry | never past the sponsor's |
| Grace after cancellation | 6 months |
Medical and documents
Every family member aged eighteen and above passes a medical fitness test at an approved centre. The document list is long and specific: a certified housing lease or proof of owning a residence, the sponsor's passport with a valid permit and job contract, an attested birth certificate for a child, medical insurance and an entry permit.
Widowhood and divorce
A woman living on her husband's visa who is widowed or divorced is granted a one-year extension of her residence, counted from the death or the divorce, and no substitute sponsor is required. It is renewable one time only. The extension reaches her children if they were on their father's visa then, if both visas were valid at that moment, and if the children's residence does not run past the mother's.
When it all unwinds
Cancellation has an order. Dependants come off before the sponsor does. Dependants are then given six months from expiry or cancellation to obtain a new permit, and a sponsor who neither renews nor cancels can be made liable for a fine.
Sources: Residence visa for families of employees and general provisions for the residence visa (UAE Government portal).
Stages of work
The sponsor's own status.
We start from your permit, because everything downstream inherits its dates. Your own remaining term is the first number that goes on the page.
Who is eligible, named.
We will list the people you may sponsor under the current rules, with ages and marital status recorded, and flag anyone who falls outside the published categories.
Documents attested and translated.
Marriage and birth certificates issued abroad need legalisation and certified translation. Neither can be produced on demand, so this step starts first.
Entry permits and medicals.
Each person comes in on their own entry permit, and everyone aged eighteen and above takes the fitness test. Health cover has to be in place before issuance.
Cards issued, dates aligned.
The permits and the identity cards are issued per person. We will bring their expiry dates onto one calendar so the household has a single date to watch.
Renewal, or an ordered exit.
Renewal follows the sponsor. A departure runs in reverse — dependants first, then the sponsor — and we will hand over the sequence in writing before anyone books a flight.
The neighbouring services for people relocating are gathered under Immigration & Visas.
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