Working remotely from Dubai will be a great experience for digital nomads, offering all the opportunities in one place. Dubai is a city of opportunities where the impossible becomes possible.
Dubai is already an attractive destination for foreigners, but it’s even more beneficial for digital nomads. Considering aspects like tax benefits, easy immigration processes, and excellent global connectivity, Dubai has it all.
What’s Dubai digital nomad visa?
Dubai’s digital nomad visa is known as the Remote Work Visa, which is part of the Dubai Virtual Working Programme.
This visa allows foreigners to work from Dubai (and all of the UAE) for a foreign company located outside Dubai or to run their own business remotely.
Dubai’s digital nomad visa has a duration of one year. If you want to stay longer, you can extend it for another year or reapply for a new digital nomad visa.
Digital nomads can bring their families to Dubai as long as they meet the requirements listed below.
Dubai digital nomad visa requirements
Dubai’s immigration system is very transparent and works quickly, thanks to modern technology. If you collect all the required documents correctly and apply for a digital nomad visa, you will be able to obtain the visa in a very short time.
Passport: to apply for his visa, you must have a passport with at least 6 months of validity. Since the visa is valid for one year, it is better to apply with a passport that has at least one year of validity.
Remote work Proof: You should have proof of your remote work. This can be ownership of a company located outside the UAE for at least one year, or a job letter, work contract, or partnership agreement.
Income requirement: to apply for the Dubai digital nomad visa, one important requirement is financial stability. to prove this, you must have a bank statement from the last 6 months showing a minimum income of 3,500 USD per month.
Health insurance: Health insurance for your entire stay in Dubai is required to protect you against all risks.
How to apply for Dubai digital nomad visa?
To apply for Dubai digital nomad visa you just need a simple internet connection, all process will be done online, here are the steps you need to follow for Dubai digital nomad visa application:
First Step: Review the documents
Start by collecting all the required documents, now review all of them, make sure that you have all the documents with fresh dates and scan all of them to upload to Dubai online visa platform.
Submit the following documents:
- A copy of passport
- Work contract or Job letter
- If you run business proof of ownership
- Income Proof: payment slips
- Bank statements of last 6 or 3 months
- A copy of your health insurance
Second Step
Now visit the Dubai digital nomad official website, register your application, provide the requested information, upload scanned copies of the required documents, and pay the application fee of $81 USD.
Third Step
Now it’s time to wait for just a week; within that time, your application will be processed. this process is fast compared to others worldwide. When your visa is approved, the total cost for residence and Emirates ID will be around $611 USD.
Dubai digital nomad visa benefits
Everyone looks for a place where they can take the most advantage, especially digital nomads who carefully choose countries for their work.
The Dubai digital nomad visa is worth the cost of the paperwork and travel because it offers a very good return to nomads.
No Tax: tax is very important matter for digital nomads, because they earn from outside of country so it’s not looking fair to pay the tax for another country
Additionally sometimes digital nomads face tow taxes , some countries have tax agreements with eachother and Nomads habe to pay taxes in both countries.
Read more: How to apply for Colombia digital nomad visa?
The good point is that there’s is 0 tax on digital nomads, they don’t have to pay a single dollar from their outside UAE income.
Connectivity: Dubai is connected with all the world, you can find direct flight at any time to any part of the world from Dubai. World’s best airlines are based in Dubai and Dubai international airport is one the world’s most busiest airport.
Family: a unique advantage of Dubai digital nomad visa is that you can bring your family with you without additional income requirement. in most other digital nomad visas you will need to have additional income for family members.
Dubai digital nomad visa disadvantages
Ok let talk about some disadvantages of Dubai digital nomad visa, in fact better sides of Dubai digital nomad visa is a lot better but there are a few points that some digital nomads maybe don’t agree with that.
Dubai digital nomad visa don’t guarantee a way to permanent residency, not matter for how long you stay there you will not be able to get permanent residency.
In fact it’s Very uncommon to ger Dubai permeant residency, Dubai has long term residence visa but permanent residency is very uncommon
High Visa fee: unfortunately the Dubai digital nomad visa fee is higher than average in the world, the cost of Dubai digital nomad visa is around 611 USD, this amount should be paid for the visa and residence card.
While Dubai charge for it 611 USD in most countries it’s low than 200 USD, in other digital nomad visas there are general a visa fee like 100 USD and the residence permit is not have a high cost, it’s even free or with a very small fee like 50 USD.
Cost of living: Dubai is not very expensive against new York and London but it’s expensive compare to medium cities and asian countries.
Climate: The weather in Dubai can be extremely hot, especially during the summer months, which can be uncomfortable for some people.
