United Arab Emirates · Talent & extraordinary ability
Golden Residence — Specialised Talents and Rare Specialisations
10-year permit. Expanded through 2025–2026 to add nurses with long UAE tenure, educators, e-sports professionals, gaming developers, content creators/podcasters (via Dubai Creators HQ), and maritime sector leaders.
For a qualifying individual this delivers exactly the same 10-year permit as the AED 2m investor route at zero capital cost. Families routinely lock up AED 2m without checking whether a founder, doctor or PhD in the household already qualifies for free. Always test the talent routes first.
Qualifying routes
Minimum monthly salary AED 30,000; MOHRE occupational skill level 1 or 2; bachelor's degree; valid practising licence where required
Reported minimum monthly salary AED 50,000 plus attested degree and 5+ years' experience; verify with ICP
PhD from a top-500 world university, or master's in engineering/technology/life or natural sciences from a top-250 university
Qualify by recognition and recommendation (e.g. UAE Council of Scientists, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Culture) rather than by salary or capital
The facts
- Qualifying figure
- 30k AED
- Total landed cost
- Government fees only — roughly AED 10–15k for the principal plus about AED 6k per dependant. No investment required.
- Timeline
- 1–4 months — Faster where a nominating authority endorsement already exists; slower for recognition-based categories
- Physical presence
- None once granted
- Family
- spousechildren of any ageparentsdomestic workers
- Permanent residency
- None — 10-year renewable
- Citizenship
- None by right — nomination only
- Language test
- Not applicable
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- MOHRE skill level 1 or 2 classification for salary routesattested degree certificatessalary certificate and employment contractrecommendation or nomination letter for recognition categoriesclean criminal recordmedical and health insurance
- The salary routes are tied to an actual UAE employment contract — lose the job and the qualifying basis for renewal goes with it, though the existing 10-year permit runs on.
- Recognition-based categories are discretionary and opaque; there is no appeal against a refusal.
- The AED 50,000 executive-director threshold is reported consistently by advisers but is not clearly published in ICP's own primary materials — verify before relying on it.
- University ranking tests are assessed against criteria approved by the UAE Ministry of Education, which may not match the ranking table you are looking at.