UAE talent visas for games professionals
We will map each person onto a published talent sub-category, name the authority whose signature it needs, and build the evidence in the form that authority asks for.
Talent route term
Срок по таланту
10 years
10 лет
Project value
Стоимость проекта
from AED 500,000
от 500 000 дирхамов
When a talent route is the one
There is no gamedev category
The published set names doctors, scientists, inventors, creatives, executives, athletes and doctorate holders. A studio role has to be mapped onto one of them.
Your evidence names no authority
Each sub-category is unlocked by a named body signing a named document. A portfolio nobody has signed is a portfolio, and the file has to carry a signature.
You founded it yourself
A founder is read on the project instead of a salary: an auditor's valuation, and an endorsement that the work is innovative or built on technology.
Your team needs different routes
One studio can hold four bases at once. Evidence for one sub-category does not carry another, and a single folder cannot hold them all at the same time.
You already hold a doctorate
A certified doctorate, an employment contract and a passport copy are what the specialist route reads, and no outside recommendation is named for it.
What you get
- The category actually open
- The body that signs it
- Evidence built to specification
- A second route recorded
- Dependants planned from the start
What the talent file must prove
The long talent route runs 10 years, and no category on it is called games, esports or development. What exists is a published set of sub-categories — doctors, scientists, inventors, creative professionals in culture and the arts, chairpersons and chief executives, athletes, and specialists in priority scientific and engineering fields — and every one of them is opened by a named body signing a named document.
Two neighbouring pages carry the rest. The categories, their durations and the authority that receives a file are set out on the Golden Visa. What the emirate's games body does and does not do is on AD Gaming residency.
Who signs which category
The evidence list belongs to the sub-category, and a document from a neighbouring one does not open it.
| The sub-category | The document it is opened by |
|---|---|
| Doctors | accreditation from the health ministry |
| Scientists | Emirates Council of Scientists letter |
| Inventors | recommendation from the economy ministry |
| Creatives in culture and arts | accreditation from the culture ministry |
| Chairpersons and chief executives (occupational level one) | salary certificate from AED 30,000 |
| Athletes | letter from a sports council |
| Specialists in priority fields | certified doctorate or degree |
Where a games career lands
An engineer or technical lead holding a doctorate is read as a specialist in a priority field, on a certified degree, an employment contract and a passport copy. A designer, artist or narrative lead is read as a creative in culture and the arts, and the accreditation comes from the ministry of culture and youth or from a department of culture and arts. Someone holding a patent is read as an inventor, on a recommendation from the ministry of economy.
The executive line
A studio head is assessed as a chief executive at occupational level one, and this is the one line whose published evidence carries a figure: a salary certificate at AED 30,000 or above, on top of a certified degree and the contract. That route, and the same test set against the neighbouring markets, is carried by director and executive visas.
The founder's route
A founder who is paid by the project rather than by a payroll goes through the entrepreneur category, which runs five years. Two documents carry it: a letter from an auditor confirming the project is worth at least AED 500,000, and a letter from the competent authority or an accredited business incubator confirming that the project is innovative, technology-based or future-oriented.
Sources: Golden Residency Guide (Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security).
Stages of work
Facts before category.
We will write down what each person has actually built, been paid for and been recognised for. The category follows from that record and never from a job title.
The category and its body.
We will match every person to a published sub-category and name the authority whose signature that sub-category needs, together with what that authority asks to see.
Evidence built to specification.
Degrees are certified, experience is documented year by year, contracts and salary certificates are put in the form the list describes. Foreign papers are legalised.
A second route recorded.
Where the first choice depends on a signature you do not yet hold, we will record the fallback in writing, so a refused endorsement does not close the whole plan.
Into the right channel.
We will lodge the application where the chosen category belongs, handle whatever comes back, and hand over the residence record and the card with their own dates on each.
Ten years, and what renewal tests.
The category is examined again at renewal, so an expired endorsement or a lapsed contract is a status event. You will get those dates before they arrive.
Our other work on getting people into the country is listed under Immigration & Visas.
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